Euphemia of the Personas
by Francis456
Summary: Full summery inside. After having a strange dream, Euphemia is whisked away to the quiet town of Inaba in another world where she must help in solving a mystery and discover her part in said mystery. However, even if the mystery is solved, it just may spell Euphemia's untimely end.
1. A Strange and Seemingly Pointless Dream

**Euphemia of the Personas**

**A Strange and Seemingly Pointless Dream**

**Disclaimer** – I do not own either Code Geass or the Shin Megami Tensei Persona franchise. Code Geass is the property of Sunrise, Gorō Taniguchi and Ichirō Ōkouchi and the Shin Megami Tensei Persona franchise is the property of Atlus.

* * *

**Summery** – After the knighting of Suzaku Kururugi (or Kururugi Suzaku), Princess Euphemia li Britannia suddenly starts having strange dreams, and on top of that, after the incident at Shikine-jima, instead of ending up on Kamine-jima like Lelouch, Kallen and Suzaku, instead, she's whisked to another world, where she finds herself a guest of the place known as, the Velvet Room, in which a man called Igor informs her that she has a role to play in preventing an imminent catastrophe set to befall the country town known as Inaba. Afterwards, Euphemia finds herself in Inaba, where she meets up with Narukami Yū, who's staying with his uncle and cousin for a whole year while his parents work overseas. Strangely, though, Dōjima Ryōtarō, after seeing an Alien Registration Card with Euphemia's name on it comes to believe that she's a foreign-exchange student that he agreed to take on, much to everyone else's shock. Nonetheless, Euphemia resides herself to her fate and goes with Dōjima, Nanako and Yū. Unfortunately, it isn't long before trouble raise's its ugly head, despite making friends, Euphemia's strange dreams continue, and the pink-haired Princess and her new friends find themselves in the grips of an unusual murder case, where they come to realise that a world in which they can enter through television sets may be involved. Developing the power of Persona, Euphemia and her new friends vow to solve the case and bring the killer to justice. However, unfortunately, if that wasn't enough, the group eventually learn that there's more at stake than just catching the killer. Can they catch the killer and solve the mystery behind the mysterious fog, or is Inaba doomed to become enshrouded in fog forever, and just what part does Euphemia have in all this? Between the mystery and her strange, seemingly unrelated dreams, Euphemia comes to realise that she was brought to Inaba for a reason, a reason that just may spell her end.

* * *

It was dark; that was the first thing that Euphemia li Britannia, Third Princess of the Holy Britannian Empire, could rationalise. However, she had no idea where she was, or even how she had gotten there. All she knew was that she was surrounded by nothing but pitch-blackness. For a moment, the pink-haired Princess started to panic, as she wondered just where she was and how she got there, but after just a few brief seconds, she then started to calm down as her memories up until that point came flowing back into her mind.

"Of course, silly me," she thought to herself reassuringly as she regained her composure, "This must be a dream."

Yes, that had to be it. The last thing she remembered was turning in for the night back in the Tōkyō Settlement's Government Bureau Building. It had been a really tiring day for her. First of all, she had chosen her Knight of Honour, Suzaku Kururugi… or Kururugi Suzaku, since Eastern Asian customs seemed to prefer a person's family name coming before their given name. Anyway, she had gone ahead with the Knighting Ceremony, and suffice to say, Suzaku had not been well received and he had definitely not been met with the approval of the nobility, and all because of his ethnicity.

Suzaku was Japanese, and since Japan had been conquered by Britannia, it had been reclassified as "Area Eleven" and its people reclassified as "Elevens", therefore in the eyes of many Britannians, he was considered ineligible for knighthood. That was something that Euphemia just could not and would not accept. Sure, she knew the rhetoric that her father, the Emperor, Charles zi Britannia, reiterated at every given opportunity he had; on how the strong survive and the weak perish, how all men were not equal and how equality was an unpardonable evil. His speech at her half-brother, Clovis's State Funeral said as much. Unfortunately, this led to the majority of Britannians thinking that they were superior to all other races in the world due to their nation's power, and that they had free reign to do whatever they pleased.

That was something that Euphemia found herself at odds with. It just was not fair. Suzaku was a phenomenal soldier and his loyalty to Britannia was unquestionable, and yet, because he was a mere "Number" and not a Britannian, none of that mattered to the majority of Britannians. He was an "Eleven", therefore his track record and services to the Empire did not count, and she would not have been surprised if he was also under constant scrutiny from those unwilling to accept that his loyalty was completely genuine. Honestly, it frustrated Euphemia to no end just how many Britannians were so closed-minded that they were willing to overlook the work of "Numbers", no matter how hard they worked in favour of the work of a pure Britannian, who may be rather lazy in comparison. It seemed that in today's world in Britannia, an incompetent lazy Britannian would always be chosen over a hard-working "Number" no matter what the situation was; especially if said Britannian happened to be part of the nobility.

It certainly did not help that her older sister, Cornelia li Britannia, actually seemed to agree with that line of thinking. As she put it, "Discrimination against the Numbers was Britannia's National Policy", and when Euphemia voiced her desire to change said policy, Cornelia had rudely brushed her off, and had angrily claimed that she could feel free to do so when she became Britannia's Empress.

Nonetheless, it was only because of Earl Lloyd Asplund and General Andreas Darlton that the nobles present for the Knighting Ceremony had all eventually started clapping. However, Euphemia knew how they really felt. In their eyes, Suzaku was an "Eleven", and therefore, he had no right to be there. He could have actually saved their skins several times over, and yet, because he was an "Eleven", they would still probably treat him with disdain and revulsion, refusing to acknowledge his services to them, and in fact would probably just hate him even more due to the damage that being saved by an "Eleven" would do to their egos.

"They could have at least pretended that they were okay with it," Euphemia mused to herself, as she remembered that the experience had left her feeling rather awkward, "But I suppose I can admire their honesty, though I have to wonder, if I had chosen a Britannian who was either a commoner or a noble that had fallen into disgrace, would they have felt more inclined to hide their disapproval?"

That was right, Euphemia continued to muse. A Britannian would have undoubtedly received a lot less hostility. She knew how the nobility were. They viewed themselves as superior to all, including the common masses of Britannia, but the difference between commoners and "Numbers" were that commoners were their own people. She knew that had she chosen someone, who was a commoner and, in the eyes of the nobility, was also a nameless nobody or a disgraced noble, like say, the former Margrave, Jeremiah Gottwald, had he not met his untimely demise during the battle at Narita, the nobles would have probably have still had the same contempt and derision that they had for Suzaku due to how he fell into disgrace after seemingly allowing, and even assisting the terrorist, Zero, to escape during Suzaku's Court Martial for the murder of Prince Clovis, but because her chosen candidate would have been a Britannian, and therefore, one of their own, they would have probably felt more inclined to keep their true feelings and any hostilities as a result of said feelings beneath the surface.

"Initial boot successful," a voice that Euphemia did not recognise seemed to echo through the darkness, startling her, as it had come out of nowhere without warning.

"Huh, what the… who's there?" Euphemia called out in confusion, since she believed that she had been alone in the darkness.

"Timestamped, Tuesday, 20th April, 1999, time, 10:16:39," the voice went on, either having not heard the pink-haired Princess or choosing to ignore her.

"I'm sorry, just what's going on?" Euphemia asked in confusion.

The voice, though sounding female, sounded like it was giving a pre-recorded message or like it was phrasing a diary entry, though; Euphemia had to admit that something about the voice's speech sounded a bit off somehow. She could not place her finger on it, but there was definitely an… irregularity, for lack of a better term, in the woman's speech pattern, at least, Euphemia assumed that it was a woman speaking.

However, one thing the pink-haired Princess did note, was that the date the voice had said sounded wrong. Even though she had not been born back in 1999, she had learned through history classes in school that 20th April 1999 a.t.b. had not fallen on a Tuesday, but a Thursday, and the a.t.b. at the end of the year had been absent. This only served to confuse her even further.

Unfortunately, before she could ponder on this dating inaccuracy, a bright light suddenly flashed before her eyes, causing her to clench her eyelids shut for a brief moment, and when she opened them again, after it had taken a short while for her eyes to adjust to the light, she was no longer alone in darkness. Instead she found herself standing in a room behind two men, one with neatly combed hair and the other with rather messy untidy looking hair, and both were dressed in white lab coats and they both appeared to be staring down at someone sitting in some sort of hi-tech looking chair, though, from her vantage point, Euphemia could not see clearly just who was sitting in the chair, she could tell from catching brief glimpses that it appeared to be a teenaged girl with long white hair.

"The boot process was successful," the man… or scientist as Euphemia could make out, with the neatly combed hair spoke in a somewhat soothingly calm tone, "This happens every time, but I'm never sure what to say to them first."

"You mean like a greeting?" the scientist with the messy untidy looking hair replied with a small chuckle, "There's no need for that. They're just machines."

"Machines?" Euphemia thought, as she struggled to get a better view of the girl in the chair.

The two scientists did not seem like they had noticed her and Euphemia found it strange that they seemed to ignore her, as if they were not aware of her presence in the room.

"Um…" Euphemia struggled to say aloud.

"Two humans wi'in visual range," a voice echoed in Euphemia's head, interrupting her before she could announce her presence to the two scientists.

"What was that?" Euphemia said aloud, sounding slightly panicked, as she looked around, trying to determine where the voice had come from.

"Both male," the voice continued to speak, clearly unaware of the pink-haired Princess's plight, "Soiching foah voiceprint an' visual matches…"

"Soiching, don't you mean searching?" Euphemia thought, as she listened to the voice's statement, "What a funny way of talking."

It was then that Euphemia suddenly realised just where the voice was coming from and who it belonged to. Not only that, but she also recognised the voice as belonging to the woman who she believed had spoken right before she exited the darkness and ended up in this lab with the two scientists. The voice definitely had the same speech irregularity as before, and not only that, but Euphemia also realised that she was hearing the voice in her own head and given that the chair's occupant was female, the pink-haired Princess guessed that it must have been her thoughts that she had just heard, though she was at a loss to explain just how or why she could hear this robot girl's thoughts.

"So, the girl they're milling over, I'm guessing is some sort of machine," she hypothesised to herself, as she took in what the two scientists had said earlier.

The girl's thoughts definitely sounded somewhat robotic despite the speech irregularity, and she did sound like she was making an analysis and only stating facts.

"Poisonnel iden'ified as resoich staff," the robot girl concluded in her analysis.

"Gee, I never thought such a feat was possible," Euphemia thought to herself, as she went over the fact that the girl sitting in the chair was a robot.

However, that left the question as to which of the three superpowers this robot girl was afflicted with. She had no idea that it had been possible to build a robot in the exact likeness of a human being. As far as she was aware, the technology necessary to achieve such a feat had not come to fruition yet… at least as far as she knew. However, it could be that someone did have the technology at their disposal and had not gone public with it… in which case; whatever it was she was seeing was a top-secret project that no one in the public domain knew about.

"But then again, this is just a dream," Euphemia reminded herself with a small laugh, "Albeit a really strange one, but a dream nonetheless."

This was indeed strange to her. She knew that she was dreaming, and yet, something about this whole situation did not add up. Euphemia could not put her finger on it, but she could definitely feel that something about her current situation was off. Something about all this felt a bit too… real, for lack of a better term, to her. The fact that the two scientists had not turned their attention towards her despite the fact that she had spoken aloud, though as confusing as that was, it also relaxed the pink-haired Princess, since she now knew that they could neither see nor hear her.

"Not hostile tahgets," the girl's voice came, bringing Euphemia back to reality, which indicated that she had not concluded her analysis.

"But things like that might affect the performance of these models," the neatly combed-haired scientist, as Euphemia had dubbed him, said in the same soothingly calm tone as before.

"Because they have a mind?" the messy-haired scientist, as Euphemia dubbed him, scoffed uncaringly in a dismissive tone, "Their "emotions" and things are completely faked… it's no different from an AI. It can't possibly be that sensitive."

This comment caused Euphemia to glare at the scientist's back as she heard the uncaring dismissiveness in his tone in regards to the girl.

"I'd watch that if I were you," she warned, even though she was now fully aware that they could not hear or see her, though, the messy-haired scientist's comment had angered her to the point where she ceased to care, "If something can think for itself, then comments like that could come back to haunt you later."

She definitely remembered watching a few movies and TV shows surrounding machines that were capable of thinking for themselves, and the premise of those stories were that they went on to rebel against their creators, and the main reason for that, in most cases, was human abuse; in other words, the humans viewed the machines as just that, machines, and treated them like dirt, with little to no regard for the machines' feelings, and it eventually got to the point where the machines had simply had enough and were not putting up with it anymore. In a way, it was very much like the "Numbers" of Britannia's conquered "Areas", with the Britannians constantly antagonising them, and then, eventually, the "Numbers" would go on to say something along the lines of "We're not putting up with this anymore", and it inevitably led to several rebellions that Britannia had to contend with almost on a daily basis.

"Scannin' foah key woids in convoisation," the girl's voice came again, as if letting the pink-haired Princess know that she was also listening to the two scientists' conversation.

"Don't you mean "Scanning for key words in conversation"?" Euphemia thought, though she could not help but let out a small giggle, finding the girl's speech pattern somewhat funny and, kind of cute.

"Runnin' logi'al analysis," the girl continued to analyse, seemingly ignorant to everything else around her, including Euphemia, "Cross-refoiencing wi' rela'ed da'ah. Current convoisation topic is not oidahs."

"Oidahs, orders," Euphemia noted, making a correction for the girl.

"Well, until we can rule it out completely, we should at least be kind to them," the neatly combed-haired scientist said in response to his colleague's dismissiveness.

"…So you say," the messy-haired scientist replied with an uncaring shrug, deciding to just play along for now, and then, he turned to focus his attention on the girl and started speaking to her, "All right, from this moment on, you will be registered as Candidate Unit #031. Please repeat your number back to me."

Euphemia could not help but glare at the scientist yet again. She supposed that since the girl was really a machine, then it made sense that she was given a number rather than a name, but the fact that she looked human seemed to dictate, at least in Euphemia's mind, that she be given a name rather than a mere number. It was worse than the Britannians stripping away the nationalities of those they conquered. The "Numbers" had their nationalities taken away and replaced with a number, but at least, as individuals, they had been allowed to keep their own unique individual names, i.e. Suzaku Kururugi was still Suzaku Kururugi despite being reclassified as an "Eleven". To give an individual a number rather than a name was something that Euphemia found just outright infuriating, even if the girl they were milling over was just a machine. As if someone could not be stripped of their dignity even further. Even Britannia did not sink that low, at least not yet as far as she was aware.

"Confoiming foist oidah," the girl's voice came, once again bringing the pink-haired Princess out of her thoughts, "Initialisin' unit numbah. Output via voice reques'ed. Activatin' voice syn'esis module. Acceptin' output."

"Gee, just short and to-the-point statements," Euphemia said with a sigh, "I suppose that's just to be expected of a robot, no matter how human they look."

"Unit Numbah, Zero-Three-One," the girl said, speaking aloud for the first time, and causing Euphemia to back away slightly, startled as hearing the girl's voice aloud.

It was then that Euphemia finally was able to get a good look at the room she was in. The walls were made up of pinkish brown square titles with small quarter-squares at each corner. Part of the floor also shared this pattern, at least to the left of where everyone was standing. There was a small step that elevated this portion of the floor slightly. The part of the floor they were all standing on was made up of light greyish white horizontal metal slabs with a long narrow greyish back pipe running vertically along the centre and running underneath the centre of the chair. A little to the right was a thick brown borderline that separated the chair portion of the floor with, yet another portion of the floor, which was the same as the walls. Each title, at where the corners met appeared to be small dark reddish brown diamond shapes with larger transparent squares. At both the step off to the left and the borderline to the right, where the metal slabs met one another were small black half-squares.

Looking up, Euphemia noted that the ceiling appeared to be grey with two rows of long vertically positioned yellowish green lights. Also, on the left wall was a window and looking through it, Euphemia seemed convinced that it was the window to a room full of computer servers. Also to the left was a contraption that was hanging down a screen that displayed four different computer-style windows, each one blue in colour, but displaying different sorts of data.

To the right was some kind of machine, the same colour as the walls with a small console at it. Euphemia could not understand what this machine was, but she noticed that to the right, there was a pole or pipe of some sort attached to it and running up towards the ceiling and to the left there was a huge thick cable-like pipe attach to the top of the machine and it run downwards behind the chair where the robot girl was currently sitting. She also noticed that behind the chair was a huge grey segmented monolith like structure that ran up into the greenish yellow light that shone in a huge circular device above the chair that was attached to two poles on either side of it and the poles ran the entire height of the room. Euphemia also noticed various wired attached to the back of the chair that ran up into the circular device, as well as a small screen in front of the robot girl, which only further obscured her view.

"Hm…?" the neatly combed-haired scientist said, raising a curious eyebrow upon hearing the girl's speech irregularity, "Did its pronunciation sound a little odd to you?"

"It, I realise that you're talking about a machine, but since "it" looks like a human girl, I'd feel more comfortable referring to "her" as if "she" was a human girl," Euphemia said, feeling rather miffed, and was not pleased with the two scientists' dismissive and uncaring attitudes towards the girl, despite the fact she knew that they could not hear her.

Those two were really starting to annoy her with their lack of sensitivity. Sure, she knew that because the girl was a machine that their insensitive attitudes was probably understandable. However, it still angered her regardless. It was a machine, yes, but it looked human, and therefore, as far as Euphemia was concerned, it should be addressed and referred to as if it were a human being. After all, if it could think for itself, then the scientists' insensitivity would undoubtedly cause problems further down the line. After all, AI or not, the girl could still think for herself, and therefore, she had feelings, feelings that, fake or not, could drive her to potentially rebel when she inevitably became tired of the scientists' mistreatment of her and started to question them on why she had to take orders. Oh yes, Euphemia could definitely see that coming, even though she had no idea just what was going on yet.

"You're worrying too much," the messy-haired scientist said, as his tone started to sound just a bit annoyed and impatient, "Let's hurry up and haul it out."

"Receivin' action plan through consoile," the girl's voice echoed in Euphemia's head, reminding the pink-haired Princess that, despite her silence, she was still functioning, "Combat test against udahs of same unit. Test commencin' immedia'ely aftah en'erin' shock-resis'ant chambah wi'in de lab."

"What, combat, so she's supposed to be some kind of weapon then?" Euphemia said in stunned shock and disbelief, before she calmed down with a sigh, "Good thing this is a dream though, I'd hate to think that this was real and some anti-Britannian plot."

"Frame stoahed wi'in cage for transpoit," the girl's analysis went on in Euphemia's mind, "Beginnin' transpoit."

All of a sudden, everything around Euphemia started to fade to blackness, startling her.

"Hey, what's going on?" she said, feeling a wave of panic flood her mind, having not expecting everything to suddenly return to darkness.

"Ah, so this is the one," a new, female voice came, echoing through the darkness, which, for some reason, seemed to calm the panicking Princess, since it let her know that she was safe and had nothing to fear, "I've been waiting to see it in action."

"Transpoit complete," the robot girl's voice came in Euphemia's mind, as if further reassuring her that she was safe despite the darkness, "Cage reoa'ened. New human found. Soichin' for voiceprint and visual matches… Poisonnel also iden'ified as resoich staff. Female."

"Thank you for stating the obvious," Euphemia could not help but snark with a giggle.

"Cuttin' connection ta outside da'ah supply," the girl went on, ignoring Euphemia's comment, "Connection offline. Commencin' cable disconnection."

Following that inner monologue, Euphemia suddenly heard a noise that sounded like a mix between a cable being unplugged, like the girl had stated in her inner monologue and a whir sound.

"Now, try getting up," the female voice, that Euphemia assumed must have belonged to a female scientist, stated.

"Oidah confoimed," the girl thought to herself, seemingly unaware of the pink-haired Princess's ability to hear her, or even that Euphemia was even there.

* * *

The next thing Euphemia knew when she was no longer surrounded by darkness, she was standing in a huge circular room. The walls and floor were all a metallic dark pink colour with a cylindrical structure in the centre that ran up the entire height of the room. There were also purple borderlines running vertically down the walls along with two catwalks running around the entire room. The cylindrical structure in the centre of the room also had a catwalk running around it near the top.

Continuing to take in her surroundings, Euphemia also noticed that there was a small gap between the wall and the floor as well as another small gap between the floor and the central cylinder, as Euphemia dubbed it, and also, she noticed the walls and the central cylinder were peppered with longer rectangular shaped glowing lights of various lengths. There was also a circle of those lights running around the central cylinder as well. However, looking up at the ceiling, the pink-haired princess noticed glass panels at forty-five-degree diagonal angles running around the central cylinder and behind them with a dark bluish white glow.

"That must be where the scientists are," she said to herself with a nod, as she finished analysing where she was.

She suddenly heard what sounded like robotic noises coming from behind her, causing her to spin around and then she saw that part of the wall behind her had risen and for the first time, Euphemia was able to get a good look at the robot girl that the scientists had been milling over, since she stood with her back to the entrance that she had just entered from, even as the wall slid back into place.

"Wow," Euphemia could not help but say, as she examined every part of the robot girl.

To be honest, Euphemia could not help but stare as she felt as if her breath had been taken away. Despite her clearly mechanical appearance, Euphemia could not deny that this girl, robot or not, looked stunningly beautiful. Her face alone, despite the stone-cold blank and emotionless look was absolutely breath-taking. She even had a bulge in the chest area, giving the appearance of breasts, despite the fact that she was a machine, and therefore, the addition of breasts should not be necessary. Euphemia believed that it was simply just to make her look more human, probably so the scientists would probably feel a lot more comfortable around her, at least that's what the pink-haired Princess reasoned. Anyway just looking at her, Euphemia felt that despite her being a machine, she could just stare into the girl's almost-hypnotically beautiful face all day.

"She's really beautiful," the pink-haired Princess whispered to herself, and for some weird reason, she could also feel her heart start to race.

Her stunning beauty was definitely captivating. If not for her obviously mechanical body, then just staring into her face alone, one would not believe that she was actually a machine.

The girl, herself, had long white hair tied into a ponytail and she had a fringe at the front that was brushed over to the left, revealing her surprisingly stunning crimson red eyes. The bottoms of her legs were painted red, as if to give the appearance that she was wearing shoes and her legs were a metallic grey colour with visible knee joints, and knees taking the shape of ovular knee guards with metallic grey bands running around the back. At the sides of her upper thighs were two circles, one on each side, split into quarters with the upper left quarter black, the lower left quarter yellow, the upper right quarter yellow and the lower right quarter black. At the tops of her legs were vertical rectangular gaps with rounded corners and at the sides, rising up to the top of the hips were two rounded ends with a black circle that resembled a giant screw.

The front of the robot girl's upper torso was covered by a white striped sheet that looked a bit like a sweeter that ran up the length of her neck to the underside of her chin. Her back and sides were metallic with clips, three of either side, holding the front sheet in place. Her arms were also obviously mechanical, as her shoulders were made up of just the joints that connected her arms to her body. The tops of her arms were very much like the tops of her legs and her upper arms had a small area of white in between the shoulders and elbow with the grey only acting as the borderline. Her forearms were red and the red ran from her elbows to her hands, though her fingers were clearly a greyish white colour. There was a small gap between the bottom of her forearms and her hands that nearly exposed the wrist joints. Also near the top of her forearms where small rectangular haps with rounded corners and above that, her forearms seemed to fan out slightly before coming back in towards the centre where the elbow joints were situated.

If that was not enough, Euphemia noticed that mounted on the girl's back was what appeared to be a part of grey metallic miniature butterfly wings, though the edges looked more like curved guillotine blades. Each "wing" had three gaps on the inside, closest to the girl and filling edge gap was what looked like a rocket thruster of some kind, each with a blue piped cable attached to the top… well, it was just one piped cable actually. On her back was with appeared to be a cylindrical metallic container with a red coned bottom. At the top of this "container", the blue piped was attached, branching out in either direction, curving upwards and also branching off at where it was near one of the rocket thrusters.

Euphemia also noticed that the girl also had a grey metallic hairband over the top of her head with rounded cornered rectangular gap, much like the visor of a medieval knight's helmet, and instead of ears, were red disc-like attached with the tops covered by the sides of the hairband and each side had a blue cable running off behind the girl to a strange metallic guard-like attached that covered part of her ponytail. It had the same rounded-cornered rectangular pattern as her hairband and two wing-like appendixes angled downwards.

"I wonder what that's for," Euphemia wondered, taking note of the strange metallic guard over the girl's ponytail.

"Get up," the girl's voice came in Euphemia's head, and Euphemia just had to, once again, wonder just why she was hearing the girl's inner monologues, "Initiatin' motion syn'ronisation engines foah moa'ah functions. Acceptin' output. Safety limi'ahs active. Balance control gyros functional. Overall movement sys'ems functional."

Euphemia could not help but roll her eyes at hearing more of the girl's short-and-to-the-point statements.

"Gee, this is getting really boring, but then again, what can one expect from a robot?" Euphemia mused with a chuckle at the last part.

"This model's loaded with a nearly pure form of that crystal…" the voice of the female scientist boomed through hidden speakers from somewhere within the room, sounding rather excited, "I can't wait to see what kind of results it gets."

"Pure form, crystal… what's that about?" Euphemia wondered, feeling her curiosity peek at overhearing the scientist's statement, "I suppose, provided I don't wake up, I'll find out eventually."

"Unit #031, can you hear me?" the voice of the messy-haired scientist came from the hidden speakers, "Confirm your surroundings. Tell us any abnormalities you're feeling in your sensors or any other functions."

"Oidah confoimed," the girl, Unit #031, as the scientists addressed her, thought, with only Euphemia hearing her, "Beginnin' simple self-diagnostic."

There was a brief silence as Euphemia heard a whirring scanning sound.

"Temperachah, humid," Euphemia heard Unit #031 reporting to herself.

"Really, I wouldn't know because, apparently I'm transparent," Euphemia commented as she looked down at herself to see that she was indeed, transparent, and therefore could not feel the temperature.

"…Presshah, aiah composition, lumens, sound all wi'in noimal levels," Unit #031 went on, even as Euphemia made her joking comment, "Visual da'ah wi'in expec'ed culah spec'rum. All systems functional."

"The readouts seem fine," the female scientist said, with Euphemia assuming that she was answering for Unit #031, "Monitoring system is fully operational."

"Okay, we're going to be testing your performance inside the battle chamber now," the voice of the messy-haired scientist came, clearly speaking to Unit #031.

"So this is the battle chamber?" Euphemia said, as she had another look around, remembering what Unit #031 had said before ending up here, about how she was going to be fighting against other robots of the same make and model.

She could not help but be fascinated with the height of the room and how futuristic and hi-tech it looked.

"When you hear the buzzer, consider everything that moves an enemy and eliminate them," the messy-haired scientist went on, oblivious to the intruder within the battle chamber.

"Oidah confoimed," Euphemia heard Unit #031 acknowledge.

She then heard the sound of metal coming into contact with metal and turned to see that Unit #031 was walking further towards the central cylinder.

"Awaitin' da sign ta begin da test," Unit #031 continued to monologue, also doing a brief scan of her surroundings as she did so, at least, that's what Euphemia believed she was doing, "Exit confoimed ta be sealed. Room shape: approximately cylindri'al. Height: approximately eleven mee'ahs. Area: approximately seven me'ahs-squaiah."

"Yes, well, I could've done without a thorough measurement of the room," Euphemia mused, knowing full-well that no one could see or hear her, but she supposed it was just a means to amuse herself.

"High-enahgy light soices found on outah wall," Unit #031 went on, seemingly ignorant of her fellow occupant's thoughts, "Assumed ta be fiah-resistant and bulletproof."

"Sorry to do this just after you've woken up, but it'll put you through your paces," the messy-haired scientist said, seemingly in apology, but from Euphemia's perspective, he sounded rather bored and was not sorry at all, and this caused her to glare up at the glass panels, where she believed the scientists were.

However, just then, a whirring sound was heard and several parts of the wall started moving upwards, revealing that in addition to making up the chamber's walls, they also doubled as doors. Seven wall panels rose in total and behind each one was, yet another robot girl. Each individual was different in their own unique way, having different colour schemes and different hairstyles, but the one thing Euphemia did notice was that all seven had the same colour of hair and eyes, the same colours as Unit #031, and all seven were built to resemble human girls.

"Release o' facin' hatch detected," Unit #031 observed as the seven other robot girls all started to spread out and assume battle stances, "Mobile objects intrudin' inta chambah."

She then paused as she performed a brief rescan of the area, taking in each new robot girl that she now identified as her opponents.

"Seven objects in to'al," she went on, resuming her analysis, "Scannin' foah visual matches. Analysis: nonhuman. Confoimed as same-model units of humanoid weapons."

"I wonder if this is the idea of some sick and twisted perverted moron desperate to fulfil some sort of sick fantasy," Euphemia wondered in obvious disgust, as she also took in the other robot girls.

"Hostile mahkahs confoimed," Unit #031 stated, indicating that she knew what was expected of her from the scientists, "Classifyin' as hostile units. Releasin' safety limi'ahs. Ba'le limit now set at seventy poicent."

After this, the seven wall panels that had opened up suddenly all came down, as if slamming shut behind each of the other robot girls.

"Exits confoimed resealed," Unit #031 stated in her monologue after confirming that the doors had indeed been locked.

Just then, a buzzer started sounding and Euphemia knew that that was the signal for the battle to begin.

"Gee, I hope my transparency here holds out," she thought nervously.

Even though she knew that she was in a dream and that there was no chance of her being hurt, she still could not help but be a little fearful that she would unintentionally get caught in the crossfire and end up dead. She supposed that it was just natural human behaviour. Despite her apparent transparency and invisibility here, due to how real everything seemed, she was still a bit scared and knew that her instincts might start kicking in despite that.

"Not to worry," she said aloud, trying to reassure herself, "If anything happens I suppose, I'll just wake up like I had a nightmare or something."

She could not help but follow up with a nervous laugh.

"Test commencement signal received," Unit #031's voice echoed in her mind, letting Euphemia know that she also understood the buzzer's meaning, but unbeknownst to Euphemia, Unit #031 turned her head briefly and stared right at her, but almost immediately turned her attention back to her opponents and refocused on the task at hand, "Tahgets: hostile humanoid weapons. Commencin' ba'le."

Euphemia ran towards the wall panel where Unit #031 had entered the battle chamber, intent on staying as far away from her as possible while she fought off her seven opponents. She heard the sound of Unit #031's rocket thrusters powering up and could not help but turn to see what was going on.

"I wonder if this is seven on one or a battle royale," Euphemia could not help but wonder, as she saw the thrusters on Unit #031's back fire up and launch her into the air.

What happened next, Euphemia would not have believed if she had not witnessed it for herself. Once in the air, before Euphemia could accurately pinpoint her position, Unit #031 had swooped down on one of her opponents, causing an explosion, and the next thing Euphemia knew, she was seeing the remains of the hostile unit, which mostly consisted of her head flying out from a cloud of smoke. The head itself was cracked, broken and missing an eye, very much like the head of a broken plastic doll.

Looking through the smoke, Euphemia could see Unit #031 standing with a completely blank look on her face that held absolutely no emotion whatsoever. What happened next was that the "container" on her back, attached to the "wings" detached from her back and extended in length, revealing that it was also a staff and looking at it, Euphemia released that it also doubled as a weapon, a double-headed battle axe to be precise. Unit #031 grabbed the staff of her axe and ran right towards another of her opponents, one armed with a naginata, a Japanese style bladed spear weapon, and who proceeded to thrust it towards her, but Unit #031 veered off to the left, so easily, it was as if her opponent had been moving at a snail's pace, and before her opponent could contemplate on this, Unit #031 swung her axe, bringing the blade right into contact with the side of the hostile unit's neck, causing it to explode.

Euphemia's eyes widened in a mixture of awe and disbelief as the remains of the hostile unit fell to the floor. However, she then noticed another hostile unit up in the air that appeared to dive bomb Unit #031 while swinging her weapon towards her, but Unit #031, using the thrusters on her axe was able to hop out of the way like a grasshopper, and then, she spun around and, with just one swing from her axe, she disarmed her opponent while they were both still in mid-air. However, the hostile unit quickly recovered and landed on her feet and turned to face Unit #031, who was already moving rapidly towards her in a dive-bomb fashion.

Aiming her right arm at Unit #031 and clenching her hand into a fist, her forearm shot off, revealing that it was attached to a chain, but Unit #031 swung her axe in front of herself, causing the chain to wrap round it, and then she brought her axe back with a rather violent jerk, bringing her opponent flying upwards towards her, and then, aiming her own fist at her opponent, she performed the same technique her opponent had, punching her hard in the side of her face with enough force to cause her eyes and teeth to explode out of her head, effectively killing the hostile unit, and all the while, she still maintained her stone-cold hard-rock lack-of-emotion look on her face, as if the fates of her opponents meant nothing to her.

The hostile unit's body exploded as Unit #031 landed on her feet and retracted her arm. Her back was to Euphemia, and the pink-haired Princess also noticed a camera was also watching her, focusing on her back. Looking at Unit#031 from this angle without her axe mounted on her back, Euphemia noticed a red orb that appeared to be embedded in her lower back and also in the area that separated her upper and lower torso, she had a metallic grey skirt-like structure with the same rounded cornered rectangular spaces at the tops of her legs, the tops of her arms, her hairband and that guard-like attaching near the top of her ponytail. It did indeed look as if Unit #031 was wearing a skirt.

Everything seemed to go quiet as low beeping noises were heard. Up in the observation room, one of the scientists looked on with the screen reflecting off his glassed as more beeping sounds were heard and seemed to increase in frequency, as if leading up to something.

Back down in the battle chamber, the red disks situated where Unit #031's ears were supposed to be started to spin at a rapid rate, as the thrusters on her axe blasted her into the air, and taking her axe in one hand, bringing it behind her, she let loose one almighty swing towards the rest of her opponents, causing explosion after explosion, as surviving body parts all landed on the floor and the entire chamber became littered with robotic bodies and parts of bodies and the entire chamber suddenly became flooded in a huge cloud of smoke, with Euphemia, though not coughing from inhalation, was struggling to see what was going on. She noticed a battered and broken unit standing a few feet away, just outside the smoke cloud, but then, a hand suddenly burst out from the smoke cloud and grabbing the unit by the neck, hoisted her up into the air.

The smoke soon cleared, revealing Unit #031 as the only unit still standing with the disks on the sides of her head still rotating and whirring away. Euphemia could only watch, not really sure what to feel as she heard cracking noises from the unit that Unit #031 had hoisted into the air and also, the unit was shaking uncontrollably, indicating that Unit #031 was still applying pressure to her neck. However, looking between the faces of the two units, Euphemia noticed a major difference between them. Whereas Unit #031's expression was the same as usual, dead, cold, blank and devoid of any emotion, what shocked Euphemia the most was that the expression of the defeated unit, in stark contrast to that of Unit #031's, held an expression of pure and utter fear and looking into her eyes, Euphemia could see a terrified and pleading look in them, even now, it was as if the unit was begging for mercy, but unfortunately, Euphemia could tell just by looking at Unit #031 that she had none.

The sound of clapping echoed over the speakers, causing Euphemia to glare up at the glass panels where the observation room was. This was monstrous and barbaric. Pitting people against one another in fights to the death. It was like a Roman Coliseum where gladiators fought against one another. Of course, they were not pitting humans against one another, but machines. However, that did not matter to Euphemia. Maybe it was because the machines in question looked human and could think for themselves that she felt this way. Perhaps the scientists were just sadists that really got off on pain and suffering, but had to resort to using machines fitted with AIs in order to get around human rights laws, since with them being machines, human rights technically did not apply to them.

"How cruel and barbaric," she said to no one in particular, "It's bad enough that Britannians do this with their fellow humans because of their ethnicity."

That was true, Euphemia had to admit. Some Britannians did this sort of thing in the criminal underworld all the time. Despite her naïve and outgoing nature, Euphemia was a heck of a lot smarter than many people, her own sister included, gave her credit for. Technically in Britannia, pitting humans against one another, even "Numbers" was considered illegal, since many Britannians considered even that as going too far. However, that did not stop it from going on, and the sad part was that the majority of Britannian law enforcement were quite prepared to accept bribes from the ringleaders of such activities and intentionally look the other way, not wanting to waste their time with "disgusting, rotten Numbers" and another sad fact was that many of the ringleaders were either of the nobility, and abused their power, or had connections to the nobility in some way or other. It absolutely sickened Euphemia to no end.

Of course, being Sub-Viceroy of "Area Eleven", she technically had the power to do something about it.. at least within the confines of "Area Eleven" itself, but unfortunately, Cornelia had stepped in and had overridden her authority, telling her to leave the nobles alone, claiming that it was for her own safety, since many would probably seek to assassinate her if they felt she was breathing down their necks and was becoming too much of a threat to them. That and the fact that Cornelia really hated and despised all "Numbers" and considered anything to do with helping them as counterproductive and a waste of time.

However, before she could continue on her train of thought, a loud crack brought her back to reality and she looked to see that Unit #031 had snapped the defeated unit's neck, and yet, despite the brutality and lack of compassion from Unit #031, Euphemia, for some bizarre reason that she could not explain, just could not fault the robot girl for what she had done, despite the pleading look on the defeated unit's face. No, it was not Unit #031's fault. She was just a machine following her orders and saw no reason why she should disobey. She was very much like a child that did not know any better. The fault, as far as Euphemia was concerned, lay with the scientists.

"All tahgets elimina'ed," Unit #031's voice echoed in Euphemia's mind, letting the pink-haired Princess know that she was back to making most of her statements in her inner thoughts, "Hostile units no longah ca'able o' motion."

Following the robot girl's inner monologue, a buzzer sounded and Euphemia guessed that must be the signal that the battle was over, though from what Euphemia could see it was not much of a battle, since Unit #031 had easily defeated all seven of her opponents as if she had gone for a walk in the park.

"Test toimination signal received," Unit #031 noted after hearing the buzzer, indicating that she also knew what it meant, "Ba'le complete."

Euphemia sighed in relief and placed her hands on her knees, glad to still be alive. However, what she failed to notice was Unit #031 staring at her… well she was staring in Euphemia's general direction, but from the look she was giving, it was as if she was staring straight at Euphemia.

"That was better than we could've hoped for…" the female scientist said with awe and admiration in her voice.

The sound of a door opening could be heard over the speakers, piquing the pink-haired Princess's curiosity.

"O-oi, what's with all the bodies?" a voice that Euphemia recognised as belonging to the neatly combed-haired scientist said, sounding somewhat panicked, "You made it fight this many on its first time?"

"So, what's the problem?" Euphemia mocked with a humourless laugh, "From what I saw, that was a cake-walk."

"Don't worry, it did great," the messy-haired scientist said dismissively, trying to reassure his somewhat frantic colleague, "This is a new high score for the first battle results."

"Well done, Unit #031," the female scientist said, speaking directly to Unit #031, congratulating her on her victory, as she ignored the argument her two colleagues were having, "Stand by for further instruction."

"Oidah confoimed," Unit #031 acknowledged to herself, as the wall panel behind her slid open and she then turned and started to walk towards the exit, even as for Euphemia, everything once again faded to blackness, "Exi'in' test chambah."

"Not again," Euphemia groaned, not too happy that everything was fading to black once again, though she did have to wonder when she would wake up.

This did seem strange to her. She knew she was dreaming. She had to be, and yet, something about this entire situation felt a bit too real to her. She was familiar with dreams. Most of the time, when she dreamed, she was not aware of it and in the past, whenever she did dream, she would always seem to wake up when her dream got to a really good part. However, this seemed different somehow. She was aware that she was dreaming and yet, she had not yet woken up. Usually whenever she became aware that she was dreaming in the past, it was enough to wake up her, but this did not seem the case this time.

"Is this really a dream?" she started to wonder.

"Beginnin' transpoit ta main'enance room,," Unit #031's voice came, causing her to come out of her thoughts once again.

* * *

The next thing Euphemia was aware of, she was standing back in the lab where she had been before Unit #031's combat test. Unit #031 was back sitting in the chair, though this time, none of the scientists were milling around her and she could get a good look at her.

"Rese'in' safety limi'ahs," Unit #031 announced to herself, still unaware that Euphemia could hear her, "Tay'in' seat in main'enance chaiah."

Euphemia could not help but, once again, giggle as Unit #031's strange speech pattern.

"I think it makes you all the more cute," she said to the robot girl, despite knowing that she could not hear her, "It helps add to your appeal."

However, this only caused Unit #031 to stare directly at Euphemia in confusion, the first emotion that crossed her otherwise blank face since her initial activation.

"We're done testing, but there's still one thing left to do today," the female scientist's voice came from behind Euphemia, causing the pink-haired Princess to turn and get a good look at her.

Euphemia had to say that she was surprised, considering that she had not been in the lab before. She had short dark brown hair that was tied at the back into a bun and she wore rectangular glasses with rounded corners. The light shining off her glasses made determining her eye colour impossible, but to Euphemia's shock, the woman looked as if she was Japanese. She wore black high-heeled shoes and a pink one-piece dress under her lab coat. She also had a clipboard in her right arm and a nametag pinned to the left side of her lab coat and Euphemia's eyes widened in shock, since despite not learned kanji, hiragana or katakana, she found that she could read the kanji symbols on the nametag perfectly as if they had been written in the roman alphabet and the name on the nametag read, Isobe Reiko, or Reiko Isobe, since Euphemia knew that the Japanese prioritised their family names before their given names when introducing themselves.

"So her name is Reiko," Euphemia noted with a nod, though she was curious as to why the female scientist was Japanese.

"I'm going to temporarily shut down your optics," Reiko went on, speaking to Unit #031, unaware of the pink-haired intruder standing in front of her, "Can you close your eyes?"

"Oidah confoimed," Euphemia heard Unit #031 acknowledge, as suddenly, everything went black once again as Unit #031 closed her eyes.

"Oh no, this is really starting to annoy me," the pink-haired Princess thought with a groan of frustration, "Just what's going on?"

"Shu'erin' optic inputs," Unit #031 went on, and Euphemia somehow knew that she was still in the lab, though why she was seeing nothing but blackness despite this was beyond her.

"Connec'in' cables," Unit #031 said as Euphemia heard the sound of a cable being plugged into somewhere, "Online confoimed. Switchin' a poition o' da'ah supply ta outside soice."

"We're going to transfer the data from the destroyed units into your memory," the voice of the messy-haired scientist said, further reassuring Euphemia that she was still in the lab.

"Transfer the data into her memory…" she said, parroting the scientist's comment curiously, "Why?"

"Run a diagnostic check while we're doing it and report any malfunctions, understood?" the messy-haired scientist went on, unaware of Euphemia's question.

"Oidah confoimed," Unit #031 acknowledged to herself, "Readyin' self-diagnostic."

A loud, what Euphemia could only identify as a beeping sound was heard and then, afterwards there was nothing but silence.

"Initiatin' da'ah transfoi," Unit #031 said, as she seemed to be explaining the process she was going through to herself.

"I suppose it just comes with being a machine," Euphemia commented to herself, giving her own opinion of Unit #031's monologue, "Though I have to say that the way she talks keeps it from being dull and boring."

"Initiatin' Poisonality Module link," Unit #031 continued, and Euphemia could not help but let out a small giggle at listening to her.

However, all of a sudden, there was a brief flash of white light, startling Euphemia.

"Eep!" she yelped, feeling herself jump, but as soon as the flash appeared, it had vanished and everything was black once again.

"Initiatin' diagnostic o' transfoied da'ah and sor'in' preceduahs," Unit #031's voice came, calming the pink-haired Princess and Euphemia soon realised that the brief flash was just part of the procedure that Unit #031 was going through, "Sectah 001: Close combat control da'ah. Will investigate improvement o' tactical pa'erns through syn'esis an' acquisition of da'ah."

"Upload the data into her memory," Euphemia said, repeating the messy-haired scientist's comment, "I wonder; could it be that she's to go over their attack patterns, find out where they went wrong in order to prevent herself from making the same mistakes in future?"

"Dividin' inta ca'egories foah soi'in'," Unit #031 went on, seemingly obliviously to the pink-haired girl unintentionally intruding on her inner monologue.

"I guess that must be it," Euphemia mused to herself, as she went over her own hypothesis.

"Sectah 002: Evasive action control da'ah," Unit #031 went on, continuing with her own self-diagnosis, "Will investigate improvement o' tactical pa'erns through syn'esis an' acquisition of da'ah. Dividin' inta ca'egories for soi'in'."

"Yes, you said that already," Euphemia said in a total deadpan tone, pointing out on how the robot girl had reused her earlier phrase, "But I suppose being a machine, it's part of your programming."

"Sectah 003: Non-ba'le da'ah," Unit #031 went on, though Euphemia could have sworn she heard what sounded like a hint of frustration in her tone, though it was so brief that she guessed that she must have imagined it, "Errah. Excludin'. Sectah 004: non-ba'le da'ah. Errah. Excludin'. Sectah 005: Ba'le-related da'ah. What could dese be?"

"Huh?" Euphemia said, being taking be surprise at hearing the robot girl's question.

It was the first statement that Euphemia heard from Unit #031 that she could honestly say did not sound like she was reciting all her activities like she had been doing before. In fact, it sounded like she was rather curious and her tone while asking herself that question did not sound like it was devoid of emotion like it usually was. In fact, Unit #031's tone sounded genuinely curious. It did come as a surprise to Euphemia, since she had long since gotten used to the robot girl's flat emotionless voice.

Another brief flash of white light caused Euphemia to jump again, but unlike before, she managed to calm herself down, realising that it was all part of the procedure.

"Momentary disruption o' da'ah from visual infoimation stream," Unit #031 went on, her voice back to its usual emotionless self, "A room dat is not dis place. Outdoah scenery thought ta be at night. Also scenes o' multiple units of de same type gaddering outside o' de ba'le chambah. Could dese be memories?"

Once again, Euphemia found herself surprised at the unexpected question, which was laced with as much curiosity as the last one.

"Visual memories?" Unit #031 went on to ask herself, still curious, but then her tone shifted back to its emotionless state, as it took on a dismissive demeanour, "Dey ah obviously unrela'ed ta da mission. Why 'ave apparen'ly purposeless memories 'ave been presoived dis long? Twenty to foity poicent o' de infoimational da'ah extrac'ed from all seven units are confoimed ta be such infoimation. Incomprehensible. What is dis?"

This time, her tone sounded rather confused. It was clear to Euphemia that the information that was not related to the prior battle confused her.

"I suppose that's to be expected considering that she's a been built as a weapon," the pink-haired Princess hypothesised, as she mulled over the robot girl's sudden confusion and curiosity, "Being programmed to fight is probably like a human growing up as a soldier learning nothing other than military-related topics, therefore, when confronted with a situation not related to the military means that they don't know how to handle it."

She could cite her older sister, Cornelia, as a prime example of that. Sure, Cornelia may not have been training for the military since she learned to walk, but Euphemia could tell that after training for the military and being surrounded by the military for so long, Cornelia only knew how to fight, that coupled the fact that she had developed a near-pathological hatred of all non-Britannians since their half-siblings, Lelouch and Nunnally, had been lost in the war with Japan seven years ago only amplified the problem. Due to her becoming so accustomed to her military training, Cornelia had developed the misguided notion that all her problems, no matter what they were, could be solved with bullets. A problem arises, put a bullet in its source and that was that, problem solved. That's how Cornelia saw things, and unfortunately, this mind-set had left her ill-equipped in dealing with issues outside of the military.

"Anything to report?" the voice of the messy-haired scientist came through the darkness, bringing Euphemia out of her thoughts.

This was followed by the sound of cables being unplugged.

"Cables disconnected," Unit #031 reported, her tone back to its emotionless state once again "Time elapsed durin' da'ah transfoi: approxime'ly five minutes."

"That's funny, it seemed to take a lot longer than that," Euphemia commented with a laugh, "Gee, I know that no one can hear me, and yet, I find myself talking away anyway. I guess I'm just trying to prevent myself from feeling lonely and going insane."

Afterwards, the interior of the lab started to fade back into existence, much to Euphemia's immense relief, since she honestly hated being surrounded by darkness.

"Reopenin' optic inputs," Unit #031 reported to herself, opening her eyes as her earlier bout of curiosity and confusion seemed to have apparently been forgotten about, "Calibratin' servos."

"Alright then, Unit #031," the voice of the messy-haired scientist came from behind Euphemia, causing her to spin around and for the first time, she got a good look at him, "Give us a simple report of today's battle results."

He definitely looked untidy in Euphemia's opinion with short messy and greasy dark greyish brown hair and he also looked Japanese. He also wore brown-rimmed rectangular glasses with rounded corners over his eyes and the glasses had a thick bridge running over his nose and like with Reiko, the light shining on his glasses made determining his eye colour impossible. Aside from his lab coat, the rest of his clothes looked crumpled and dishevelled, like they had not been properly ironed or even washed in a long time. He wore black tattered shoes that looked really old with the skin peeling off in places and also had smudges of grey on them. He also wore grey trousers that were obviously creased and looked as if they had been clearly crumpled, a black leather belt that was in the same state as his shoes and a dark grey shirt underneath his lab coat with the top two buttons undone. Not only did he look absolutely abysmal and off-putting, but just by looking at him, Euphemia found that she would not be surprised if it turned out that he had not bathed in at least a week at best. Like Reiko, he also had a nametag pinned to the left side of his lab coat and the name printed on it read, Edogawa Senichi.

"Oidah confoimed," Euphemia heard Unit #031 acknowledge to herself, "Deliverin' oral repoit of test result."

"Dis was de foist test ba'le against udahs o' ma model," Unit #031 reported, and Euphemia had to say that it felt strange hearing her speaking aloud, since she had long since grown used to just hearing her inner thoughts, "Seven units destroyed. Below fifteen-poicent damage sustained. Don't seem ta be any problems."

"Hm, was that…?" Edogawa started to say in surprise and also a hint of curiosity after hearing Unit #031's strange speech pattern and gave the robot girl a rather surprised and inquiring stare.

"Unusual expression detected from resoich staff," Unit #031 noted, as she observed Edogawa's expression, "Facial recognition library indicates surprise."

"Way to state the obvious yet again," Euphemia replied sarcastically with a laugh.

"Hm, did I say some'in' funny?" Unit #031 asked curiously, which, once again, surprised Euphemia since expected that the robot girl would not speak unless she was spoken to, and only if she was required to provide an answer.

"Does it… have an accent?" Reiko spoke up, adding in her own two cents at inquiring about the robot girl's speech pattern.

"Ac…cent?" Unit #031 repeated, sounding rather confused, "Do ya not undahstand de woids comin' outta ma mouth?"

"No, we do, but…" Reiko started to say, sounding somewhat apologetic.

"See, I wasn't hearing things," the voice of the neatly combed-haired scientist came, his tone sounding like someone saying, "I told you so", which caused Euphemia to look towards her left, where she got a good look at the last of the three scientists, "This unit's speech really is peculiar!"

Unlike Edogawa, this man looked a whole lot cleaner. He had neatly combed dark greyish brown hair, and like his two colleagues, he also wore glasses. His glasses looked to be the same make and model as Edogawa's only the rims were black, like his two colleagues, he also looked Japanese. He wore nicely polished black shoes that seemed to shine whenever the light shone down on them. He also wore neatly ironed grey trousers, a black leather belt that was in the same state as his shoes, and underneath his lab coat, he wore a completely spotless white shirt along with a dark blue tie. Like his two colleagues, he also had a nametag pinned to the left side of his lab coat, which read the name, Ishida Yūma.

However, upon looking at him, Euphemia could not help but shudder as a feeling of pure dread that seemed to come out of nowhere started to wash over her. She could not tell what it was, but something about this man caused a chill to wash over her. She could not place her finger on it. He looked remarkably calm and collected, and definitely did not look as if he was dangerous, but despite that, he just seemed to give off this menacing aura that unnerved the pink-haired Princess. Euphemia knew that she would definitely have her guard up whenever he was around, despite the fact that none of them could see her.

"Yūma Ishida," Euphemia whispered, repeating the man's name, "I don't know why, but he scares me."

She found that she had to fight in order to regain her composure and it took an effort to stop herself from trembling, but she still fearfully kept a sharp eye on Ishida, as if expecting him to transform into some sort of nightmarishly frightening monster at any given second.

"Ow… you don't need to yell," Edogawa scolded, sounding slightly frustrated, since Ishida had practically yelled his last statement.

Perhaps that was why Euphemia was on edge. She decided that that had to be it. It had to be because Ishida had been yelling. However, even as she told herself this, she still did not feel reassured. Looking at Ishida, she could not help but get this feeling that there was something off about him. He had this air of eerily deceptive calmness around him, and Euphemia could not help but wonder if that was just a front, a front that hid something far more sinister.

"Is the language interface not set to default?" Ishida said, thinking aloud, completely unaware of the pink-haired intruder's weariness of him, "Fun… if we'd known this, we would've reset it in advance…"

"The base's personality might be coming out," Edogawa hypothesised, and that comment got Euphemia's attention, "I wouldn't be surprised in some of the volunteers came from regions that spoke with different dialects."

"But it just woke up," Reiko piqued in, letting her two colleagues know that she was also curious about the robot girl's unusual speech pattern, "Would it be exhibiting such distinct mannerisms this early…?"

"It may be the effect of an enlarged Plume of Dusk, the basis of their "mind"," Ishida theorised, which also caught Euphemia's attention, "Perhaps it's accelerating their personality development."

"Personality development?" Euphemia said to herself, as she started to ponder on Ishida's comment, "Plume of Dusk… this just keeps getting more and more confusing."

However, she could not help but recall Reiko's earlier statement back in the battle chamber before Unit #031 had battled those seven other units, on how she had been loaded with a nearly pure form of some kind of crystal, and wondered if perhaps this "Plume of Dusk" was what she had meant.

"Exchange o' opinions ta'in' place on unexpected aboirance in speech pa'ern," Unit #031 reported to herself, going back to giving herself a step-by-step analysis of what was happening around about her, as well as bringing the pink-haired Princess back to reality, "Hypothesis offahed dat language in'erface se'in's fall outside expected result. Review o' recent convoisation reveals cer'ain discrepancies. Intoinal monologue also seems ta be affected along wi' oral output in inducing anomalies, da cause o' which is currently unknown. Anomalies not affectin' meanin'. No impediments to communication predicted."

"But I don't want to waste this feedback data," Reiko said with a pout, as she gave the robot girl a somewhat sad look, "Those are the best results we've ever seen!"

"Leave it, it'll be fine," Edogawa said to Ishida in a reassuring tone, in an attempt to calm down whatever fears he may have over Unit #031's speech pattern, "It can understand us, anyway. This is just one of things that makes science interesting."

"There you go again," Ishida with a sigh, though Euphemia did manage to detect an underlying hint of fierce frustration, which only caused the alarm bells in her head to start ringing, "This unit is going to be communicating with the others. What if this effect spreads…? Not only that, but because this is an anomaly, we have no idea just how much of an accurate accent it actually has."

"But if it has a personality, that might speed up the development of its mind," Reiko said in an attempt to defuse the situation.

"She's right," Edogawa said in agreement, giving his colleague a look that basically commanded him to drop the subject.

For a moment, it looked like Ishida was going to protest even further, but then, he just groaned and looked down towards the floor, indicating that he was relenting to his colleagues.

"You're outvoted, Ishida-san," Euphemia said mockingly with a laugh, attempting to shake off her increasing sense of panic over Ishida, and then, she realised what she had just said, "Hold on, did I just add a Japanese honorific?"

"De three resoichahs ah standin' around de main'enance chaiah," Unit #031 told herself, bringing Euphemia out of her thoughts, even as the three scientists walked towards and huddled around the maintenance chair where the robot girl was sitting as each held a tablet and examined the chair's display, "Each holds a tablet and examines de display on de chaiah."

"All right, Unit #031, we'll explain things from the top," Edogawa said, as he started to give an explanation.

"Voice pa'ern consistent with resoich staff," Unit #031 reported, which Euphemia found strange, considering that she should already know just who was talking to her.

"You are a weapon designed to fight against unique enemies," Edogawa went on to explain, and Euphemia was starting to realise that of the three, it was him who was the one in charge, "Therefore your combat performance is prioritised over all else. But in order for you to use a particular ability, you've been given a certain amount of "awareness"."

He then paused briefly to clear his throat, and needless to say, his explanation had gotten the pink-haired Princess's full attention as she was also listening very carefully.

"That makes your performance difficult to quantify," Edogawa went on, after collecting himself, "So we've been pitting test units against each other as a selective growth process."

"The strong survive and the weak perish," Euphemia said to herself in disapproval after listening to the untidy scientist's speech, "So it even applies to machines as well. The strong go on to become useful whereas the weak are sent to the scrapyard. That's nothing new. You guys should would make great scientists working for Britannia if not for the fact that in their eyes, your nothing more than "Elevens"."

The sheer amount of bile and venom in her voice as she said the word, "Elevens" was clearly obvious. She hated that aspect of Britannia and just playing along with it, to her, it felt like it left a bad taste in her mouth.

"It's all in the service of achieving higher performance," Edogawa went on, completely ignorant of the pink-haired intruder's statement, "We don't want to waste any Plumes of Dusk."

"Accessin' ahchives," Unit #031 thought to herself, as she attempted to access archive information that had been uploaded to her databanks "Soich toim: Plume o' Dusk. One match found. A crystalline substance at de coah o' poisonality modules. Its name derives from its t'in plate-like shape, resemblin' a shed boid's feadah. In addition ta its circuit-like structuah, it has an unnatural vi'al reaction in response ta external stimulus. Similar ta a living thing, yet different. It is t'ought ta exist in a state between mind 'n' ma'ah, mass 'n' infoimation. De details ah unknown."

"So that's it, huh?" Euphemia said, as she processed this information, "So basically, this Plume of Dusk is what makes it possible for her to be able to think for herself?"

She paused and then nodded as she went over the information one more time, deciding that that was basically what the robot girl meant.

"Given that explanation, I'd have to say that this Plume of Dusk thingy must possess supernatural properties," she went on explaining to herself, "And if that's the case, though Unit #031's emotions… they can't be faked like that Edogawa guy said."

A shocking realisation soon washed over her as the truth of what she had discovered so far hit her, causing her eyes to widen in shock.

"She's not an AI, if the information on that Plume of Dusk thing is true, then she's just a sentient consciousness taking up residence in a machine's body," she went on with an overwhelming feeling of dread, "And based on what they were discussing earlier, it seems as if they're working towards developing a personality for her. Oh my, if they continue to take feelings for granted, then I feel that it'll bite them in the rear end later."

Remembering her earlier thoughts on machines rebelling against their master, after what she had just learned, she could easily predict that that scenario was more likely than any of those three could have ever predicted.

She now also understood why the defeated unit that Unit #031 had hoisted into the air near the end of her battle test had a pleading look on her face. It was now obvious to the pink-haired Princess that unit's personality must have developed to a more advanced state that that of Unit #031's. Unit #031 had just been activated and so, her lack of emotions had been understandable. However, by contrast, the defeated unit must have been around far longer than Unit #031 and through the development of its personality; it had obviously learned how to experience emotions and what they were. Since Unit #031 had just been activated, she was not aware of those emotions and did not know how to display them. It was not out of cruelty that Unit #031 had ignored her fellow unit's silent plea, but rather out of ignorance of emotions. Heck, Euphemia would not be surprised if Unit #031 had not realised what the defeated unit had been wanting from her.

"Deah ah twelve udah subheadin's classified undah level-seven clearance," Unit #031 went on, indicating that her inner monologue was not finished, "Access denied. Ma'ah interpre'ed as de coah o' poisonality modules."

"In other words, your brain," Euphemia piqued in, "You're not just a machine. You're a living consciousness in a machine's body."

"But regardless of your ego, there is one rule you must abide by," Edogawa went on, indicating that he was not done with his explanation either, "You might as well think of it as an order."

"One rule ta abide by," Unit #031 parroted to herself, "Awaitin' oidah."

Just then, both Ishida and Reiko moved away from the maintenance chair and Edogawa moved his position a bit, giving Euphemia a better view of Unit #031.

"The only order is to destroy everything we identify as enemies and to emerge victorious," Edogawa went on, causing Euphemia to groan.

"Please shut up now," she said, getting tired of hearing his voice, "Oh well, at least it's not Ishida-san talking, though I wonder how a scruff like you managed to get the top job over him, but thank goodness for that."

"Though your ego will give you some flexibility when planning tactics, there's no need to think about extraneous side issues," Edogawa continued to explain, "Use everything you can you win a fight. That's all you need to concentrate on."

"Oidah confoimed," Unit #031 acknowledged to herself.

"Undahstood," she said, speaking aloud, in order to acknowledge to the three scientists that she had heard the explanation and understood what was expected of her.

"Destroy iden'ified enemies and emoige victorious," she went on to relay in her mind, "A cleah oidah. It is consistent wi' de role o' a weapon. No abnoimalities. Everythin' is cleah."

"That's only because you see no reason to question otherwise yet," Euphemia said, and just then, to her immense shock, Unit #031 turned her head in Euphemia's direction.

"New human found," the robot girl's inner thoughts echoed in Euphemia's head, causing her eyes to widen in shock, as she looked towards Unit #031 and saw that she was staring directly at her, "Iden'ified as female."

"Wait, you can see me?" the shocked Euphemia said to the robot girl.

"Soichin' foah voiceprint an' visual matches," the robot girl reported to herself, ignoring Euphemia's comment, even as Euphemia gulped, since she knew that she was not part of the research team, "No match found. Human female is not iden'ified as resoich staff. Hypothesis, she may be an intrudah."

"Thank you for stating the obvious, but I'm not here because I want to be," Euphemia said, not happy that she was the topic of Unit #031's observations and was been addressed as if she was a specimen in a science experiment.

At this, Unit #031's eyes widened in shock, perhaps the first emotion that she had displayed on her face since her activation.

"Intrudah indicates dat she can heah ma innah monologue," the robot girl hypothesised, though listening to her, Euphemia noticed that there was an uneasiness, weariness and perhaps a little fear in her tone.

"Yes I can hear your inner thoughts, though, I don't understand why," Euphemia tried to explain, "I don't even know why I'm here. I thought that I was dreaming."

However, Unit #031 remained silent and continued to stare, only saving her words for her inner monologue.

"Study of intrudah indicates dat I can see right through 'er," Unit #031 continued to monologue, ignoring Euphemia's explanation and she seemed to have recovered from her momentary shock as her tone returned to its usual emotionless state, "Phenomenon known as transparency."

"Well, thanks for stating the obvious yet again," Euphemia said as she rolled her eyes, clearly not happy about being ignored.

"Nē, what's wrong Unit #031?" Reiko's voice came, causing Euphemia to jump, and she spun around to see the female scientist along with Edogawa and Ishida staring at the robot girl with confused looks on their faces.

However, upon studying the three scientists and realising that they had not paid her any attention to her, Euphemia felt herself relax somewhat, as she came to realise that they still could not see her.

"Do ya not see da goil standin' ovah deah?" Unit #031 said, as she lifted her arm and pointed directly at Euphemia.

"Huh, what're you talking about?" Edogawa asked, even as he was staring right at Euphemia, but judging from his posture, Euphemia guessed that all he could see was empty space.

Both Reiko and Ishida followed suit, and like Edogawa, they also made no indications that they had seen the pink-haired Princess.

"It seems like only you can see me," she said to the robot girl, who continued to stare, though, a look of confusion managed to creep its way onto her face.

"Do ya not see de goil standin' deah?" Unit #031 said to the three scientists.

"No, I'm afraid we don't," Ishida said with a sigh, though, listening carefully to his voice, Euphemia could not help but detect a hint of uneasiness in his tone, which immediately put her on guard.

Ishida also looked like he was fighting the urge not to sweat.

"There's no one there," he said simply.

"Yeah, I don't see anyone either," Reiko said, agreeing with her colleague.

"Gee, I wonder what brought this on," Edogawa said with a mixture of curiosity and frustration in his tone, as he looked between Unit #031 and the "empty space" she was focusing on, "I suppose there must be some sort of a malfunction with its optics."

"That's her!" Euphemia yelled angrily, as she glared at the untidy scientist, clearly sick and tired of them addressing the robot girl as an it instead of a she, "She's a consciousness in a machine's body."

However, before she could collect herself after her outburst, a noticed a small bluish white butterfly that appeared to fly into her field of vision. Of course, she probably would have dismissed it as an occurrence of an insect having aimlessly wondered into the lab, but what made this butterfly stand out was that it appeared to be glowing, and not only that, but as it flew, it seemed to be leaving a trail of little bluish white specs of light behind it that quickly disappeared before they fell to the ground.

"Huh, what the…?" she started to say before her entire vision burst into a bright sea of nothing but white.

* * *

Euphemia li Britannia suddenly found herself lurching herself into a sitting position after lying down and she then started to frantically look around, unsure as to where she was. However, she very quickly calmed herself down as she realised that she was safely back in the confines of her own bedroom of the Tōkyō Settlement's Government Bureau Building.

"Wow, what a strange dream," she said, sighing in relief, just glad to be back in the land of reality.

However, as memories of her dream came back to her, she could not help but wonder. Usually when she had dreams, they very quickly faded from her mind and she would pay them no mind. Whenever she awoke from a dream, she would normally forget about it in the space of roughly five minutes or sometimes a bit more. There were very few dreams, she could say that she recalled, but something about this dream seemed unique. Not only did she remember it, but she remembered it in fairly great detail.

"Now that's just weird," she said to herself, as she recalled that she dreamed she had been in some Japanese research facility where they had been making robot girls and pitting them against one another as a "selective growth process", as that scientist, Edogawa, had put it.

"Which means, weeding out the weak," Euphemia thought bitterly, as she recalled how one robot girl, Unit #031, had fought and completely decimated seven other robot girls in the space of under five minutes.

Not only that, but she even remembered the names of the scientists; that she had been able to read their nametags despite not understanding any of the three alphabets that the Japanese people use, and she could also recall in great detail the explanations she had heard, including the Plumes of Dusk and how she hypothesised that its supernatural properties meant that Unit #031 and the other units were not mere AIs, but actually conscious beings inhabiting mechanic bodies, though the scientists seemed to dismiss the emotional factor as like that of an AI, something that Euphemia just knew was going to cost them later.

"Why am I thinking about this, anyway?" she asked herself, as she shook her head dismissively, "It was just a silly dream, it's not like it actually happened or anything. However, I think it would've been nice to know what those "unique enemies" and that "particular ability" that Edogawa-san mentioned were. Oh well, it's not like I'll ever find out."

Shaking her head, she pushed off the covers and swung her legs out to the side of the bed as she got up. Even though it was still dark outside with the sun only just starting to rise over the horizon, Euphemia felt the need to use the bathroom. However, as she stood up, she noticed that resting on the bottom right hand corner of her room curtain was a familiar bluish white butterfly, like the one she had seen at the end of her dream before her world had exploded into a sea white.

"Huh?" she said in shocked surprise, clenching her eyes shut and shaking her head, but upon recovering from her shock, and doing a double-take, when she looked at the spot where she had seen the butterfly, it was gone, causing her to calm down, "Gee, I must still be half-asleep."

She then made her way to the bathroom that was connected to her bedroom. With this arrangement, whenever she woke up in the middle of the night needing to use the bathroom, she did not have to leave the room in order to find a bathroom. However, what she failed to notice was that the butterfly she had seen resting on her curtain was now resting on the front of her bed and seemed to be watching her, but when she came back from the bathroom, the butterfly had vanished.

"And so, it begins," the pink-haired Princess heard a low voice whisper from somewhere, as she climbed back into bed, but the voice was so quiet, not even above a whisper that Euphemia passed it off as her being tired.

* * *

**Author's Note** – Well this is my new project. I know I put a poll up in my profile to determine what my next Code Geass fic would be, but ever since I got into Persona, this idea's been nagging at me ever since. As for Persona, I'm only familiar with Persona 3 and 4 (though I have read into the first two games). Also, I know that I have exaggerated Labrys's accent and even carried it over to her inner monologue. That was intentional and most of the misspellings whenever Labrys speaks or is engaged in her inner monologue are intentional, and also, I gave the three scientists' names to identify them easier. I was originally intending to end this chapter at the part where Euphemia is transported to the Persona World, but then it probably would've been too long. Also to explain the dating inacurracy. Basically, the divergence in the Code Geass World from the real world happened fifty-five years earlier than the AD calendar. So 2017 a.t.b. is really 1962 AD and so, 1999 a.t.b. is 1944 AD, and since looking up on 1944's calendar, it states that 20th April fell on a Thursday and I feel that the 1999 a.t.b. calendar would have the dates of the 1944 AD calendar.


	2. Whisked Away to the Velvet Room

**Euphemia of the Personas**

**Whisked Away to the Velvet Room**

**Disclaimer** – I do not own either Code Geass or the Shin Megami Tensei Persona franchise. Code Geass is the property of Sunrise, Gorō Taniguchi and Ichirō Ōkouchi and the Shin Megami Tensei Persona franchise is the property of Atlus.

* * *

"Please stop this!" a Britannian officer called out, after Princess Euphemia li Britannia had just barged right past him and three other officers and commandeered the Portman Knightmare Frame that one of his cohorts had brought, "Think what you're doing."

Unfortunately for him, it was too late. By the time he had finished talking, the pink-haired Princess had already entered the cockpit and was already making off in the direction where Suzaku was currently holding Zero.

"But they'll stop with the Princess out there," Cécile Croomy said worryingly, shooting her superior, Lloyd Asplund, a look of concern and panic as both looked on helplessly.

"I'm not sure they will, unfortunately," Lloyd replied honestly in a helpless tone with a frown on his face, making it clear that he was just as upset as she was.

It was a day after Princess Euphemia had knighted Kururugi Suzaku as her Knight of Honour. Afterwards, the first order of business was that the Princess was due to meet a very important noble arriving at the military base on Shikine-jima, or Shikine Island, from the Britannian Homeland. Since Suzaku was her Knight of Honour, he was obligated to accompany her. However, since Suzaku was still afflicted with Advanced Special Envoy Engineering Corps or Camelot, or even the Britannian Special Research Division, they were also entitled to come along, since Suzaku was also their test pilot for the Z-01, codenamed, Lancelot, the prototype Seventh Generation Knightmare Frame, and there was always the possibility that it may be needed.

Unfortunately, that hunch has ultimately proven to be correct. Thanks to Lloyd, news of what their supposed-to-be-secret rendezvous with the nobleman had been leaked and uploaded to the Net, and undoubtedly, the Black Knights, "Area Eleven's" greatest, and most wanted terrorist organisation, led by the mysterious masked man, Zero, saw it as an opportunity to cause mayhem. At least, that was how many of the Britannians present saw it. Anyway, Princess Euphemia had ordered Suzaku to provide assistance to the regular forces based on the island. However, Suzaku had, unfortunately, been led into a trap; a Gefjun Disturber, as Lloyd called it, which was theoretically capable of disrupting the chemical and mechanical processes of Sakuradite-based technologies… at least Lloyd had thought that it was only theoretical until a few minutes ago when he saw one in action.

It had been obvious right then that Suzaku, and not Princess Euphemia, had been the target, as had been initially feared. However, the higher-ups had then apparently decided that it was a golden opportunity to put an end to Zero once and for all by turning his own trap against him. Suzaku's task was to restrain Zero while they bombarded the area with missiles. Effectively, they were sacrificing Suzaku just so they could get rid of Zero, and if that was not enough, it was a Para-Level One Order; an order from someone very high up in the hierarchical ladder that could only be countermanded by either three ranking military generals or the acting viceroy. In other words, despite Suzaku being Princess Euphemia's Knight of Honour, she was powerless to stop them, which was why she had commandeered the Portman. Her plan was to make her way to where Suzaku was in a bid to stop the attack.

"That little idiot, just what does she think she's doing?" the officer that had tried to stop her cursed with a furious look on her face, "Does she realise that by the time word reaches the base that she's on her way, then it'll be too late to call off the attack."

"Ah, let the bitch go," one of the other officers said in a rather rude and uncaring tone, causing a look of shock to appear on the faces of all others present.

"Watch your tongue, you do realise that…" one of the other three officers started to say in an attempt to reprimand his colleague.

"What, that I'm disrespecting Royalty?" the first officer said with a rather rude scoff, "She clearly sympathises with the Elevens, why else would she run off to save her precious Eleven Knight?"

"She's still the Third Princess of the Holy Britannian Empire," another of the four put in.

"And what a disgrace she is," the first officer went on in a spiteful tone, with a look of pure disgust on his face, "To think that a member of the Imperial Family, one of the Emperor's own children, would actually go on to become a Number Lover. If you ask me, if she perishes in the attack then she'll be doing all of Britannia a massive favour."

From the side Cécile's eyes widened in shock after hearing what the officer just said. Sure, she knew that not all Britannians agreed with the Emperor's rhetoric and there were those that even sympathised with the peoples that Britannia had conquered. However, the majority of them were not really in a position to do anything about it. To many Britannians, for a member of the Imperial Family to be labelled a "Number Lover"… such a thought was unfathomable. The fact that it was true in the case of Princess Euphemia, Cécile knew, had to leave those men, and who knew how many others if they found out, feeling rather disgusted, but never had she imagined that any of them with voice their opinions openly. In their minds, a Number Lover being a member of the Imperial Family was an intolerable and unpardonable crime against Britannia.

"Be that as it may, Princess Cornelia won't be happy once she learns that her sister's been caught in the attack to kill Zero," the officer that tried to stop Euphemia pointed out; bring the bluenette out of her thoughts.

"If Princess Cornelia had the guts, she would have executed that disease of a sister of hers years ago," the officer who voiced his opinion about Euphemia said in frustration, his tone just as spiteful as before "She may talk a big game, but when it comes to her sister, she's pathetically weak. No matter, it's not like we'll get into trouble or anything."

"Huh, what do you mean?" the officer who had first voiced his disapproval of him disrespected Euphemia said curiously, completely forgetting that his colleague had just effectively badmouthed the Second Princess of the Holy Britannian Empire.

"Think about it, we're not really on Her Highness's radar," the disrespecting officer said in a rather arrogant and smug tone, "When Princess Cornelia finds out, it'll be Lieutenant-Colonel Fayer alone who'll suffer her wrath, and not us. After all, he's the one ultimately in charge of the base, so it'll all be his fault when Her Highness learns of this."

"Oh, I think I understand now," one of the others said with a sigh of relief, as they all started to relax, and then, they all burst out in rather boastfully smug laughter, confident that Princess Cornelia would be none the wiser to the fact that they had disrespected both her and her sister, plus the knowledge that they would be let off scot-free while their superior would be the one to face the consequences of their failure.

However, unbeknownst to any of them, Lloyd had looked on with an uncharacteristic stoic look on his face. Anyone who knew him would have expected him to be up in arms over the fact that they would be sacrificing the Lancelot, which he pretty much fawned over as if it were his child. Suzaku, as an individual would have meant absolutely nothing to the eccentric earl, had it not been for the fact that, as the Lancelot's pilot, in Lloyd's mind, he was just another cog in the machine that was the Lancelot; an essential cog that was needed for the Lancelot to function efficiently.

Looking at her superior, it was clear to Cécile that Lloyd was not happy, but she was surprised to see that he was unusually silent. Looking at his hand that was hanging by his side, Cécile's eyes widened as she saw that he was holding a tape-recorder and from the looks of it, the recorder had picked up everything that those officers had said.

"Insurance in case someone tries to steal my ideas and pass them off as their own," Lloyd said, as his sour mood appeared to disappear for the time being, and he explained the reason for the tape-recorder, as if he had read her mind, and a somewhat mischievous smile materialised on his face, seemingly from out of nowhere, "I'm rather peeved that they're sacrificing my Lancelot and I need to vent my frustration somehow. This recording is going straight to Princess Cornelia."

Cécile then gave a concerned look in the direction of the four officers, fearful that they may had noticed, but fortunately, they were too caught up over their rather smug relief that Princess Cornelia would probably overlook their failure to stop her sister to have realised that the eccentric earl had caught their disrespectful discussion regarding Princess Euphemia on tape, and it caused her to breathe a sigh of relief.

Lloyd could not help but chuckle to himself. It was true he carried the tape-recorder around in case someone tried to steal his ideas and pass them off as their own. In the event of that happening, Lloyd had planned to get a confession out of them and then go to the media with the recorded confession. Of course, he would never expect his main rival, Rakshata Chawla, whom he knew was the one behind the Gefjun Disturber, to stoop that low, but he knew that there were others like him and Rakshata who were perfectly willingly to resort to such underhanded tactics.

As for why he was using the tape recorder. Well, like he told Cécile, he was not happy that the Lancelot was going to be a casualty of the higher-ups' plan to eliminate Zero, and despite being powerless to stop it, he figured, after listening to those four talking bad about Princess Euphemia, that recording what they were saying and handing the recording to Princess Cornelia was his way of making himself feel better.

"Boy, won't those four be in for a shock when Princess Cornelia comes a-callin' regarding their disrespectful comments?" the eccentric earl thought, as a rather evil looking grin slowly crept into his face.

* * *

Meanwhile, Euphemia was racing towards the battlefield where Suzaku had been ordered to restrain Zero. She veered the Portman off to the left slightly before resuming her path.

"Suzaku, you can't die now," she thought to herself frantically.

She honestly could not believe what was happening. She swore that this had to be some kind of conspiracy to do away with Suzaku. She had only just knighted him, and yet, because of his ethnicity, it had been decided that he was to be sacrificed in order to put an end to Zero, at least that's how Euphemia saw it. That had to be the reason that he was being sacrificed; she was sure of it. Those close-minded fools just refused to acknowledge or accept Suzaku regardless of his services to the Empire.

Remembering back before he had gone to help the Shikine Forces deal with the Black Knights, someone objected to his involvement under the assumption that he could effectively turn the Lancelot against them. Similarly, at Tōdō Kyōshirō's prison break, which had been shown live on television while she had been at the Clovis Memorial Museum where she had been holding a press conference because of an art contest, and at first the Britannians had cheered for the Lancelot, but upon seeing that the pilot was a mere "Eleven", their attitudes quickly changed to revulsion and contempt and many saw his refusal to pursue the retreating Black Knights as proof that he was in cahoots with them.

"Simple-minded fools," Euphemia thought to herself angrily, "Don't they realise that if Suzaku had been plotting against the Empire, then he would have already made his move long before now?"

Yes, that was true. Suzaku had more than enough opportunities to betray the Empire, and yet, he remained steadfast and loyal. Honestly, with some of those prideful idiots, it was like talking to a brick wall. Even if that was pointed out to them, Euphemia was sure that they would just find some excuse, even a rather flimsy and ridiculous one, to hold onto their delusional beliefs. She would not be surprised if it turned out that instead of fearing that he may turn against them, some of the more stubborn ones actually wanted him to turn against them; that way they could easily say that they were justified in hanging onto their beliefs.

Of course, she was not stupid. When she stole the Portman, she had told the officers to contact the base and tell them that she could become a casualty, in a bid to stop the attack, but she knew the chances of success were slim. By the time word reached whoever it was that issued that Para-Level One Order, it would probably already be too late to call off the attack, and yet, despite knowing this, Euphemia had not cared one bit about the possibility that she could potentially end up being caught in the crossfire and had gone ahead and charged ahead anyway. Perhaps she could save Suzaku from the attack somehow, though, being honest with herself, she absolutely had no idea just how she was doing to accomplish that feat, but at the same time, she did not care.

"Para-Level One Order, just what is that and why haven't I heard of that until now?" the pink-haired Princess wondered curiously, since it really was the first time she had heard of such an order.

Apparently, a Para-Level One Order was an order that could only be overturned by three ranking military generals or the acting viceroy; in this case, her sister, and apparently, despite Suzaku being her Knight of Honour, she was powerless to countermand this order. That was what she hated the most; being powerless. She really wanted to help contribute to the Empire, but also help the Japanese People in getting at least some semblance of independence, even it it just so happened to be rather small. However, unfortunately, her position as Sub-Viceroy meant that she was only just a figurehead, which she deemed a position of power that was nothing more than a façade. In theory, she had power, but in practise all the decisions were made for her and she was only meant to reinforce those decisions. Cornelia held the real Power in "Area Eleven".

She also knew that she could not count on Cornelia to overturn the Para-Level One Order. Euphemia knew that her sister absolutely hated Suzaku just because of his ethnicity, despite him saving her life, not once, but twice at both Narita and Yokosuka-kō or Port Yokosuka, and besides, even if Cornelia was perfectly willing to overturn this order, by the time word reached her, it would already be too late, which was why Euphemia had taken matters into her own hands. Knowing that there was possibly no way of stopping the attack. Her initial plan had been to get to Suzaku's location and find some way of getting him out of there without getting herself killed, and if that meant Zero was still alive, then so be it. She just did not want Suzaku to die.

Besides, in regards to Zero, she had her suspicions about his true identity, and she wanted to confirm those suspicions for herself. Remembering back to Kawaguchi-ko, or Lake Kawaguchi, when she first met Zero, he had told her how she "had not changed", which led her to believe that he knew her personally, and remembering how her half-siblings, Lelouch and Nunnally had been sent to Japan as political hostages before war broke out, and knowing that he had legitimate reasons to hate the Imperial Family, Euphemia could not help but suspect that Zero may in fact be her thought-to-be-dead half-brother, Lelouch. After all, the Emperor had made no attempt to rescue them when the invasion started. In fact, remembering back, the Emperor had claimed that Lelouch and Nunnally had both been murdered by the Japanese even before the invasion force had left the Homeland. The whole reason for the invasion in the first place was to avenge the fallen Prince and Princess; so if Zero was indeed Lelouch, then it meant that the Emperor had effectively lied.

But unfortunately, Euphemia doubted that Lelouch would see it that way. In his mind, he and Nunnally had probably been abandoned by everyone, the li Britannia siblings included, and left for dead. Remembering asking why Zero had murdered Clovis, Zero had told her that it was because he was a child of the Emperor, but despite her being a child of the Emperor herself, Zero had spared her and complimented her on revealing herself to save that poor timid bespectacled girl after she had unintentionally antagonised some of the terrorists assigned to guard the hostages.

Of course, she knew there was a possibility that she could be wrong and that Zero was not Lelouch, but she just had to see for herself.

"The time is at hand," a voice, barely above a whisper suddenly echoed in her mind, seemingly to come out of the blue, which brought her out of her thoughts and back to reality.

"Huh?" Euphemia said aloud, jumping in surprise as she looked around trying to find the source of the voice.

However, unsurprisingly, she found that she was alone in the small confines of the Portman's cockpit.

"Am I hearing things?" the pink-haired Princess asked herself.

The voice, itself, did not sound as if it had come from any external source. In fact, if Euphemia had to hazard a guess, she could have sworn that the voice had come from inside her head, and thinking about it, she could not help but be brought back to that strange dream she had had the previous night about the mysterious robot girl called Unit #031, whose inner thoughts she could somehow hear, and who had been made to fight other units of her model for some purpose that she did not know. She also remembered hearing a similar voice… or perhaps it was the same voice, after having woken up and coming back from the bathroom, but at the time, she had ignored it, passing it off as her imagination due to tiredness.

Ever since she started the day, she had managed to keep that weird dream in the back of her mind, especially when she learned that someone had decided to sacrifice Suzaku in a bid to kill Zero, but after hearing that mysterious voice yet again, memories of her dream came flooding back to her, and the unnerving thing was that she could still clearly remember everything that had occurred in that dream as if it had been real; from how she could somehow hear Unit#031's inner thoughts to how the robot girl effortlessly defeated seven other units in just under five minutes to how unnerved she was when she noticed the scientist with the tie and neatly combed hair; Yūma Ishida, or Ishida Yūma, she remembered him being called after reading his nametag. She even remembered how at the end of the dream, Unit #031 had noticed her despite how she had been invisible to the scientists, and then that mysterious bluish white butterfly entered her field of vision before everything erupted in a sea of white before she woke up.

"No, why am I thinking about that now?" the pink-haired Princess said to herself, shaking her head, "It was just a silly dream."

However, even as she told herself that, it was obvious that she was unconvinced. Something about that dream just did not add up with her. Dreams tended to fade over time, leaving behind vague details and even with the few clear details that some people's minds managed to salvage, one could not determine what the entire dream was about. However, Euphemia could still clearly remember everything despite having fallen back over to sleep and having another dream, only her second dream seemed more natural and she could not remember it at all.

Looking at the monitor of the Portman's cockpit, Euphemia noticed the edge of a cliff up ahead. Thinking fast she brought the Portman to a halt, but then, she noticed a huge shadow hovering overhead.

"That's my brother's Avalon," she said in astonishment, looking up towards the massive ship.

All she saw was bullets being fired from the assault rifles of the Black Knights' Knightmares bouncing harmlessly off the craft's Blaze Luminous shield. Euphemia could not help but remember that Suzaku had used the Lancelot's Blaze Luminous shield to protect her from a Chaos Mine after the now-defunct Pureblood Faction had gotten into a civil dispute, and Suzaku had tried playing peacemaker, but the late Lord Kewell Soresi, who had become a fatality during the skirmish at Narita, had unfortunately, due to his own arrogant stubbornness, had refused to back down and unleashed a Chaos Mine just as she run out between them in a bid to stop the fighting herself. Fortunately, Suzaku had noticed her and had come to her defence.

However, putting that to the back of her mind, she frantically pushed the cockpit's exit button, causing it to open up, and once she had been lowered to the ground, she burst into a run towards the edge of the cliff while holding up the skirt of her dress, looking up at the Avalon and then opened her mouth in a vain attempt to call out to them, but then, everything seemed to stop for a brief moment, as Euphemia saw a mysterious figure briefly flash before her eyes.

The vision had been so brief that Euphemia could not accurately make out what the figure actually looked like, but she did see enough to realise that it had been the figure of a woman with dark hair, though she could not tell the exact colour and that her eyes were either red or brown, but before she could contemplate this further, her entire vision, once again, like in her dream, exploded into a sea of white.

* * *

A little while later, after the Avalon had moved back out to sea and the Black Knights had scattered, the Britannian Forces were preparing to mount a search and rescue party for Euphemia, a bluish white butterfly, similar to the one from Euphemia's dream, from Euphemia's dream emerged from the abandoned Portman that Euphemia had commandeered and flew a short distance away before a black butterfly emerged from the surrounding forest and flew straight towards the bluish white butterfly.

The bluish white butterfly must have noticed its black cousin, since it stopped and turned its head in its direction and just hovered till the black butterfly came to within a few feet of its position, and then, both butterflies appeared to vanish before, almost immediately, two men appeared standing where the two butterflies had been hovering.

The man standing where the bluish white butterfly had been had long black hair tied into a ponytail and wore a white mask over his entire face. The mask also had a purple butterfly's wing painted over the right side was the mask where the eye was situated. The man also wore black shoes, white trousers, a white coat, a dark grey-almost back shirt and a black tie.

By contrast, the man standing where the black butterfly had been had no such mask, though he did have a dark tint to his skin. He had shoulder-length white hair with the right side in front of his shoulder and the left side behind his shoulder and also had a dark brownish red right eye. His left eye was covered by what looked to be a clock reading the time at twenty-five past two. He wore dark grey shoes, dark grey trousers, and a dark grey waistcoat over a white shirt, a red coat over both his waistcoat and his shirt with gold outlining at the collar and dark grey outlining at the borderline between the sleeves and the cuffs. He also wore white gloves and bolo tie with a dark grey ribbon and a circular golden front.

"Ah, so this is where you've been all these years," the man in the mask said, as he folded his arms, not seeming all that surprised to see the other man as if he knew who he was, "How long has it been since we last saw one another?"

"I'm surprised to see you here, Philemon," the man with the clock over his eye said curiously, making it clear that he knew who the masked man was, "I was of the sense that the accord between us had been settled for the moment."

"And so, you came to this world, intent on sowing the seeds of chaos, as you always do, Nyarlathotep," the man in the mask, Philemon, said with a hint of seriousness in his voice.

"I merely guide mankind towards its inevitable destruction," the man with the clock over his eye, Nyarlathotep, said, shooting Philemon a small glare, "And unlike in our own world, there is no accord between us here, so you can't take steps to interfere this time."

"I'm not intending to," Philemon answered simply, "Though, it seems that our world and this world have become connected somehow. I was here to merely watch over Euphemia li Britannia."

"Ah yes, her," Nyarlathotep noted dismissively with a seemingly uncaring shrug of his shoulders.

"You know, I've seen this world's history and how it differs from the history of our world," Philemon noted, sounding somewhat impressed, "I take it that that was all your doing."

"Need you have to ask?" Nyarlathotep stated somewhat smugly, with a look to match, which only served to confirm what Philemon had said, "It's been over two thousand years or so since we last saw one another."

"Two thousand years, from your perspective, maybe," Philemon stated, sounding rather intrigued, "However, from my perspective, it's only been about, what, eleven, twelve or maybe even thirteen or so years. In our world, the year is 2011 AD."

"Really, so not only was I banished from our world after my defeat, but I also must've somehow been hurled through time as well," Nyarlathotep said, as obvious bitterness made its way into his voice, indicating to Philemon that he was still rather sore about his previous defeat, despite the fact that over two millennia had passed from his perspective.

"I've also seen the future of this world," Philemon went on to explain, "As I'm sure you have as well. Had she not whisked Euphemia away, she would have gone on to establish a Specially Administrated Zone for the Japanese people, which would have ultimately led to her demise after her half-brother's Geass power raged out of control."

"Yes, I'm aware," Nyarlathotep said with a slight chuckle as he turned to face away from Philemon, and a small smile formed on his lips, "It also leads to the Black Rebellion, which fails all because he never took necessary precautions to protect his sister."

"And that's because he never anticipated that anyone would know his true identity," Philemon mentioned, as he thought of the green-haired girl, "It's mostly that C.C. girl's fault for withholding such important information from him. I bet she never even considered that withholding that information could also put Lelouch at risk. Anyway, what I'm curious about is why you allowed her to whisk Euphemia away. I know you, Crawling Chaos, that incident at the SAZ would have been your doing if it had gone ahead, and I know that you don't take too kindly to others interfering in your own plans, unless of course you have some ulterior motive in mind."

Despite his face being covered by a mask, Nyarlathotep knew that Philemon was giving him a suspicious and inquiring look, like he knew he was up to something.

"And what makes you say that?" he asked, feigning confusion, as he turned back to face his rival with an obviously fake confused expression on his face, though he knew that Philemon clearly saw right through him, "It could be that I'm genuinely interested to see what becomes of young Euphemia."

He then paused and then appeared to disappear before another man appeared to appear in his place.

This man had the same dark tint to his skin that Nyarlathotep had. However, he had long pink hair and dark purplish blue eyes. He wore red and white sneakers, orange trousers and a green and white sweater with a red choker around his neck. The green of his sweeter ran from his hips up to his stomach and the white from his stomach upwards. Looking at this new man, one would instantly realise a resemblance to Euphemia. In fact, he looked very much like a male clone of Euphemia and his clothes seemed to be a male version of Euphemia's casual clothing.

"You obviously plan to use this to your advantage, don't you?" Philemon said, not being affected by the appearance of this male Euphemia clone in the slightest, "However, there is no guarantee that Euphemia will survive."

"I can always hope," the male Euphemia clone said with a rather unnervingly sinister smirk before he disappeared, and then, Nyarlathotep reappeared in his place.

"Yes, I suppose you can," Philemon said with a nod of acknowledgement, as if he were still talking to the male Euphemia clone, "But after Lelouch loses and the Black Rebellion collapses, thanks to that V.V. character kidnapping his sister, his former best friend, Kururugi Suzaku hauls him before the Emperor, who then proceeds to seal away his memories with a Geass of his own and send him to Europe under the alias, Julius Kingsley to help with the EU War."

"And once that's accomplished, Lelouch is sent back to Ashford along with the Student Council with Rolo, his fake brother," Nyarlathotep went on, picking up from where Philemon left off, "Although I have to say that Rolo was only a replacement after one, Orpheus Zevon, murdered Clara Lanfranc, who was initially supposed to be Leleouch's little sister. Anyway, after a trip to Babel Tower, orchestrated by the OSI, Lelouch regains his memories, turns the Black Knights' "Final gasp" as someone put it into their spectacular rebirth and forges an uneasy alliance with Lí Xīngkè of the Chinese Federation, who seeks to use him in his quest to dispose the Dà Huàn'guān or High Eunuchs for those that don't understand Chinese."

"Yes, and that's after he murdered Viceroy Calares and then uses his Geass on Gāo Hài to allow him and the Black Knights entry to the Chinese Federation Consulate," Philemon went on, as Nyarlathotep paused, "His next act was to free his subordinates from Gilbert G.P. Guilford, while at the same time forcefully recruiting his fake brother with the intention of discarding him once he reunited with Nunnally, but then, Suzaku returns to Area Eleven and attempts to trip Lelouch up by having him talk to Nunnally, who volunteered to become the next Viceroy in order to re-establish Euphemia's dream of a Specially Administrated Zone."

"Yes, but fortunately, thanks to Rolo and his Geass, which freezes people's perception of time, Lelouch is able to outwit Suzaku, and then the mission to capture her ended in failure, but Lelouch, after spending some time despairing over the fact that his plan and Nunnally's plan contradicted one another, he finally enacts a plan to keep his sister out of harm's way," Nyarlathotep said, as Philemon paused to catch his breath, "Basically, he agrees to convince one million Japanese to participate in exchange for exile, but has all one million participants dress up as Zero, which results in them all being exiled before Prince Schneizel el Britannia, Second Prince and Britannia's acting Prime Minister comes up with a plan to annex the Chinese Federation into Britannia with a political marriage been his older brother, Crown Prince Odysseus eu Britannia and the Tiānzǐ, Jiǎng Líhuá."

"Yes, but the Black Knights crash the wedding and Zero makes off with the Tiānzǐ, effectively ending his alliance with Xīngkè and forcing the Dà Huàn'guān to forge an alliance with Xīngkè, even giving him the Knightmare Frame, Shén Hǔ as a token of their sincerity…" Philemon went on, as Nyarlathotep stopped to rest.

"But they intended to betray him," Nyarlathotep added, interrupting his rival, "But not before he captures Kallen Kōzuki… or is that Kōzuki Kallen of the Black Knights and all because there hadn't been time to replace the Guren Nishiki's energy filler, but Suzaku came along and had her turned over to the Britannians, probably to deprive Lelouch of a useful asset, since Kallen's skills a Knightmare Frame pilot have proven useful to Zero/Lelouch in the past."

"That was the Battle of Xiǎopéi, where Xīngkè knocked Lelouch of his high horse," Philemon went on, not seeming all that bothered that his rival had interrupted him before, "I believe that it was by taking advantage of the years of neglect of the underground utility piping designed to deliver water to the homes of the Chinese people that Xīngkè was able to gain the upper hand. However, thankfully, taking advantage of the Dà Huàn'guān's betrayal of Xīngkè, Lelouch managed to trick them into revealing their true colours to their own people, which led to riots to break out all over their territories, and causing the Britannians to effectively abandon them before Xīngkè killed them and rather reluctantly and grudgingly rebuilt his alliance with Zero."

"Though Xīngkè's loyalty is ultimately to the Tiānzǐ," Nyarlathotep pointed out, "He made that point perfectly clear; that he will not be subordinate to Zero."

"Unfortunately, the organisation known as the Geass Order, or more specifically, V.V., or Vincent zi Britannia, as he was once called, sent a rebuilt cybernetic Jeremiah Gottwald to assassinate Lelouch with a Geass Canceller built into him, though, it's a mystery how he, or the Siegfried for that matter survived the crushing water pressure after C.C. forced him down to the bottom of the ocean with the Gawain," Philemon went on with a sad sigh, "Unfortunately, Shirley Fenette unknowingly was in range when Jeremiah activated his Geass Canceller, which eventually lead to Rolo killing her, though Lelouch managed to convince Jeremiah to switch sides and leads an attack on the Geass Order."

"Rolo murdered Shirley Fenette because she mentioned Nunnally to him," Nyarlathotep said, thinking about the issue with a gleeful smile, "Lelouch may have been planning to reunite with Nunnally, but Rolo planned to kill her because he saw her as a threat to his standing in Lelouch's life, and killing people is the only way he knows how to solve a problem and deal with threats. Anyway, at the Geass Order, Lelouch, after a combined attack with Cornelia on V.V. in the rebuilt Siegfried, meets his father, who stole V.V.'s code effectively murdering him, and C.C. or Cera Serville, as she was once called reveals the true nature of her contract before sealing her Code away reducing her to an innocent ten-year girl trapped in a teenaged body."

"The ratification of the UFN, the so-called betrayal of Suzaku when he and Lelouch arranged to meet him and Schneizel's aide, Earl Kanon Maldini, had Suzaku followed without his knowledge, which led Lelouch to believe that he had genuinely betrayed him again," Philemon went on with a sigh, "But somehow before that meeting, he managed to use his Geass on Guilford in order to convince him that he was Cornelia whenever he executed a certain gesture, which helped him in escaping. However, unfortunately, the damage had been done and when Suzaku tried to warn Lelouch about the F.L.E.I.J.A. weapon that that Nina Einstein girl developed, which is basically this world's answer to a nuclear weapon, he was too furious to listen, and unfortunately it led to said weapon being used, even if it was because of the command that he placed on his former friend not that long ago."

"Yes, and not only that, but it was believed that Nunnally had been caught in the blast radius, though, despite Kallen being freed, Lelouch's resulting depression led to his half-brother capitalising on the situation and convinced the Black Knights to betray him," Nyarlathotep summed up with a nod, "Though Schneizel didn't exactly lie… at least not completely."

"No, he basically withheld certain bits of information," Philemon pointed out with a sigh, "All he did was make comments that could be easily misinterpreted as being true, produce that small snippet of Lelouch's so-called confession about Lelouch intentionally using his Geass on Euphemia to Suzaku and let the Black Knights' minds do the rest. I'm sure that after the deaths of over thirty-five million people, none of them were thinking straight, even willing to gun down Kallen when she came to Lelouch's defence, which ultimately caused him to tell the Black Knights what Schneizel wanted them to hear in order to get Kallen away from him, and since he believed that Nunnally was dead, he believed that he had nothing left to live for."

"However, Rolo came to his rescue, despite him telling his fake brother how he truly felt about him, and Rolo was able to evacuate him off the Ikaruga, but overuse of his Geass ultimately cost him his life," Nyarlathotep went on, continuing to narrate as Philemon stopped to rest, "This gave Lelouch the resolve to at least stop the Emperor and seal them both away in C's World for eternity."

"C's World, this world's version of the Sea of Souls," Philemon said, making an observation, "However, it was then that Marianne vi Britannia revealed that she had a Geass of her own that she had used to escape death by transporting her soul into Anya Alstreim, and after assuming control of Anya's body, she restored C.C.'s memories and then made her way to Kamine-jima, where Lelouch, Kallen, Suzaku and Euphemia, the latter of which would have been sent had she not intervened."

"Yes, but it was after the F.L.E.I.J.A. that Suzaku realised that he had been naïve, and he made his own way to Kamine-jima, intending to kill the Emperor himself in exchange for being made the Knight of One once Schneizel became Emperor," Nyarlathotep went on, before giving an uncharacteristic shudder, but he almost immediately regained his composure, "And they all met up with one another in C's World, and upon finding out the truth about what his parents were really planning, Lelouch killed them both, stopping the Ragnarök Connection by using his Geass to request that "God" doesn't "stop the march of time"."

He then let out another shudder and the last part of his statement seemed to come out more of spiteful embittered hiss, something that did not go unnoticed by Philemon, which caused the masked man to raise an eyebrow from behind his mask.

"And it was only after that, that Lelouch and Suzaku finally joined forces, coming up with the idea of the Zero Requiem in which, Lelouch became 99th Emperor of Britannia and amassed all the world's hatred onto himself with Suzaku faking his death at the final battle between Lelouch and Schneizel in order to become the new Zero," Philemon went on, ignoring Nyarlathotep's brief change in demeanour for the time being, "But, before that, he first put on a façade of benevolence, abolishing his father's corrupt system, and even had Suzaku kill all but two of the remaining Knights of the Round, with the survivors, Gino Weinberg and Anya Alstreim defecting to the Black Knights. Afterwards, under the façade of having Britannia join the UFN. However, Schneizel had his own plan to ensure World Peace with his Damocles Sky Fortress; by elevating the Damocles to a certain height, it would be in a position to destroy any city anywhere on the planet with its payload of F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads."

"And if that wasn't enough, Schneizel revealed that Nunnally was alive, but by then, Lelouch had already gone too far to turn back," Nyarlathotep remarked with a slight mocking chuckle, "But he was able to win by exploiting Schneizel's flaw in that he only involves himself in situations where he knows that the outcome will end in his favour, though instead of killing him, he used his Geass on him to force him into "serving Zero"."

"Yes, Schneizel only plays games in which he knows for sure that his chances for victory are one hundred percent," Philemon went on, again, noticing the change in his rival's demeanour, especially when it came to Lelouch and how he chuckled at Lelouch discovering that Nunnally was alive, "Any drop in his chances of winning, even if his chances are still, let's say, ninety-nine point nine-nine percent, and he always forfeits, but always in such a way that he's able to save face and preserve his public image. Anyway, once Schneizel's defeated and Suzaku's seemingly dead, two months later, he pulls off the coup de gras with his Zero Requiem, by having Suzaku appear as Zero and kill him on live worldwide television. With this, he hopes that mankind will stop fighting amongst itself and move towards the future."

"Bah, what a load of hogwash," Nyarlathotep stated with a scoff, "Does he honestly think that by uniting the world against him, then peace will reign supreme for the rest of eternity when he's gone? He's a liar that contradicts himself. The truth is that he had fallen to despair even before he started his rebellion and merely wanted the rest of the world to experience that same despair. All that talk about "creating a better world" for his sister was nothing more than a lie he told himself in order to shield himself from that particular fact. Heck, he even once admitted that Nunnally was nothing more than an excuse, which is probably why he never abandoned her. He probably knew that Zero Requiem was, at best, a short-term solution, but he never really cared what became of the world, or his sister for that matter. After all, if a solution like Zero Requiem did achieve what he said it could achieve, war and conflict in our world would've ended with the defeat of the Axis Powers at the end of World War II."

"If that's what you believe, then fine, I won't waste my breath arguing with you," Philemon said with a shrug, "Besides, it's not like any of that will happen now, though I think that the Kyūshū Invasion will still happen though."

"It'll be interesting to see how Suzaku handles it without Euphemia around to "commend him to love her", as she put it," Nyarlathotep said, putting all thoughts of Lelouch and the Zero Requiem to the back of his mind, "But I must say that I find it strange that you'd take an interest in her, the Britannian Imperial Family are all descended from the Celtic Super King, Alwin I, and the price for my assistance in repelling Julius Ceaser's invasion was that he and his descendants all inherited my curse."

Philemon said nothing, though he did raise an eyebrow from underneath his mask, something that Nyarlathotep appeared to notice, despite his rival's face being completely covered.

"I will admit that at first glance, Euphemia may seem defective, in that she escaped my curse, but that's only because of her sheltered upbringing," Nyarlathotep went on to explain, "Give her a few weeks in the real world and the cruelty she'll undoubtedly experience and witness will cause my curse to surface in her."

"I fail to see your point," Philemon said with a shrug.

"Feh, I guess you must've gotten cocky since my defeat at the hands of those wretched humans, you don't normally involve yourself with humans that have been tainted by me," Nyarlathotep said in a mocking tone as he shot his rival a boastfully smug look.

"Not true, Kurosu Jun was "tainted" by you, as you put it, and I still lent him my assistance," Philemon countered, causing Nyarlathotep to nod in acknowledgement.

"But only after Suō Tatsuya, Amano Maya, Lisa Silverman, Mishina Eikichi and Mayuzumi Yukino defeated him when he was under his Joker pseudonym, and after that, I stripped him of his Persona-summoning abilities," he pointed out, "And he only regained those abilities because that Mayuzumi woman sacrificed hers in exchange, and besides, I still won that time."

"Yes, but thankfully, they were able to undo everything you did," Philemon countered and then gave his rival a look from underneath his mask, "And though I'm aware that young Tatsuya's refusal to have his memories sealed away gave you the opening you were looking for to re-establish the original timeline, you still lost."

"True," Nyarlathotep said with a bitter growl, as a look of fury materialised on his face, "Even though two thousand and seventeen years have passed from my perspective, I still remember that wretched day as if it were yesterday."

"And it leads me to my original question, since you obviously have plans for Euphemia, why allow her to take her away, thereby forcing you to amend your plans?" Philemon asked curiously, "I know I stated this before, but it's not like you to sit back and accept when someone else commandeers someone you have plans for."

"And I told you, I'm interested to see how this will turn out," Nyarlathotep replied, despite the fact he knew that Philemon knew that he was lying, "Besides, Euphemia already has a connection to her, and not only that, but for the past three years, ever since that buffoon, Clovis la Britannia, became Viceroy, I have sensed the presence of a resident from our world coming and going from this world. I gather that he must be one of her unknowing agents."

"Really, I was not aware of this," Philemon said in genuine surprise, since he honestly had no idea that someone had been coming and going between the two worlds, "I wonder, could Euphemia have been the intended target?"

"Possibly," Nyarlathotep said with a shrug, "Not that this person would be aware of their intended purpose, mind you."

Philemon paused for a moment to think things over, and then, after going over everything they discussed, he sighed.

"Well, I think that it's about time to bring our discussion to an end," he said as he turned to face away from his rival, but stopped and then looked back, "However, Crawling Chaos, I will say this much, in that by allowing her to take Euphemia, you may very well have traded one defeat for another."

With that said, he then appeared to vanish into thin air and the bluish white butterfly from before took his place before it flew away.

"We shall see," Nyarlathotep said, after his rival's comment caused him to wince in surprise, as he wondered if Philemon had deduced the real reason for allowing Euphemia's departure before he then regained his composure and shrugged.

With that, he also appeared to disappear into thin air, only to be replaced by the black butterfly from before, and like the bluish white butterfly, it also flew off.

* * *

Meanwhile on board the Black Knights' submarine, which was situated not far from the island, C.C. sat in the room that Lelouch had been using as his quarters, musing over the turn of events. She knew that Lelouch, Suzaku and Kallen had been transported to another island, Kamine-jima. However, the thing was, Euphemia was supposed to have been transported there as well, but then she felt some interference with Euphemia, like someone had hijacked the teleportation technique and used it to whisk Euphemia away elsewhere.

"How strange," she thought to herself with a mixture of curiosity and nervousness, "I had no idea that something like that could be done."

She knew that her fellow Code Bearer, V.V., had been responsible for sending the trio to Kamine-jima, but Euphemia disappearing off the face of the Earth was not V.V.'s doing, of this, she was certain, and she knew that V.V., himself, was equally at a loss to explain it. Someone else had clearly intercepted Euphemia and had taken her away, though, for what purpose remained a mystery. C.C. honestly had no idea that it was possible for a Code Bearer's teleportation abilities could be intercepted and hijacked. Such a thing had initially been unheard of. One Code Bearer could not intercept another's technique and hijack it. It was, as far as she knew, impossible.

However, before she could ponder this further, her Code suddenly flared to life out of the blue, and then, all of a sudden, the green-haired self-proclaimed witch felt an overwhelming sensation of pure unrestrained terror wash through her mind, causing her to lurch forwards as she stumbled. She had no idea where this feeling had come from, but it was so powerful and so overwhelming that she suddenly fell to her knees as if a great weight was suddenly bearing down on her. Placing her hands on the floor to stop herself from falling over, she suddenly started to breathe rather heavily and sweat quickly emerged from her skin, and before she knew it, she was sweating rather profusely.

"No!" she said in alarm, as she started to tremble, unable to shake off the overwhelming amount of terror that she was feeling, "The Crawling Chaos… Nyarlathotep! What's he doing here?"

She continued to tremble as the fear continued to plague her. She honestly had no idea why she was feeling this way or where those feelings originated. It was exceptionally rare for her to experience any emotion other than stoic boredom or desperate amusement whenever something amused her. However, this was terror on a level that she could not even begin to fathom, nor she dreamed could possibly exist. Whatever managed to cause this level of terror was definitely something C.C. knew that she would not want to meet on a dark night.

"Nyarlathotep…!" she repeated in a rather terrified tone, though for the life of her, she did not know why she said it or why she was so terrified.

She knew next to nothing about this Nyarlathotep. The words had just left her mouth automatically. However, as her code continued to flare, knowledge about this Nyarlathotep suddenly flooded her mind, causing her to hyperventilate, as the feeling of terror she was feeling suddenly increased.

"Impossible…!" C.C. breathed in a horrified gasp.

Yes, the knowledge of Nyarlathotep came into her mind. She now knew that Nyarlathotep was bad news and that his very presence caused fear to grip the hearts of others.

* * *

The first thing Euphemia realised after her vision exploded into a sea of white was that she was standing in the middle of a really dense fog. The entire area surrounding her was a somewhat sinister dark shade of grey, and looking up, she saw that the sky was pitch black. All she could see was the fog that surrounded her. Looking down at the ground, she noticed that she appeared to be standing on a tarmac surface, either a road or a pavement, she was not sure which. Another thing that she noticed was that she was completely alone. There did not appear to be another soul around for as far as the eye could see, which in this thick-layered fog, was not all that far.

The last thing Euphemia remembered was that she was racing towards the battlefield where Suzaku was restraining Zero and she noticed her half-brother, Schneizel's flagship, the Avalon, moving in over the battlefield, and she had exited her stolen Portman and attempted to run towards them. However, she remembered seeing a female figure briefly flash before her eyes before ending up here. The figure's appearance had been so brief that Euphemia could not make out any of her features aside from their dark hair and that their eyes were either red or brown, but she could definitely tell that it had been a woman.

Before she could continue to get her bearings, she suddenly heard what sounded like the soft whirring of a car engine that seemed to be getting louder and noticing a light shining from behind her caused her to turn around, and she saw a pair of headlights in the distance that appeared to get bigger as they came closer, causing Euphemia to strain her eyes and she lifted her hand over the tops of her eyes to further shield them from the light, since she had gotten somewhat used to the darkness surrounding her.

Very soon, the car that the headlights were attached to came into view, causing Euphemia's eyes to widen as she saw what appeared to be a velvet blue-coloured stretch limousine trundling slowly towards her. She could even hear the tires grinding along the tarmac. The limo's license plate registration read, CH-8700, leading the pink-haired Princess to believe that it was a foreign car.

Studying the limousine, Euphemia saw the headlights were actually a pair of circular headlights on either side of the silver grill at the front, which had a triangular top, and on top of the "roof" of the grill was a small staff that had the letter, V sitting atop it and the V was decorated in leaves, which were part of the structure, as they were the same silver colour. There were also five windows of either side of the car, and the back headlights were rather thin vertical red rectangles with rounded corners. The truck of the limousine was almost non-existent, and studying the front, the make of the grill reminded Euphemia of the make of the Rolls Royce style engines. The top of the front was also triangular in shape with the top of the headlights having flat roofs.

"Don't tell me that I'm in another weird dream," she thought to herself with a mixture of fear and frustration, as she remembered her dream from the previous night.

It was not long before the limo pulled up alongside her and came to a stop. Before Euphemia could even contemplate this, the front door of the left side of the limo opened up and out stepped a man that the pink-haired Princess guessed must be the driver, though upon studying him, the pink-haired Princess could honestly say that he looked more like a hotel porter than a chauffeur.

"Hello there," the man greeted in a polite tone, as he followed up with an equally polite bow, "My name is Theodore, and I know that this is all so sudden, but my master has been waiting for you."

Euphemia just stood, blinking in shocked surprise and astonishment with a look of pure disbelief plastered on her face, unsure on how to respond.

Studying this Theodore character, Euphemia saw that he had short, neatly combed platinum blonde hair and brownish orange eyes. He wore a pair of black shoes, black trousers that seemed to have two deep blue stripes with a black stripe between them running vertically down either side. He also wore a black shirt, a blue necktie and the weirdest jacket Euphemia had ever seen. His jacket appeared to be black on the inside with a blue outline at the collar. The jacket was also two different shades of blue with the lighter shade running down the front and sides of the sleeves with a darker blue running down the centre of each stripe, giving the appearance of two light blue stripes at the sides in the same vain as the sides of his trousers. The sleeves, themselves had black cuffs with four small golden buttons forming a square pattern above the tops of the hands and a black stripe ran along the centre of the lighter shade of blue vertically along the side and the tops of the shoulders. Also, at the front were for golden buttons forming a square. Each button was also highlighted by a black circle, which held it in the centre along with a thinner blue circle and another, black circle that was thinner than the first black circle. The jacket also had a small black back belt at the back between the lower abdomen and waist, which was pinned to the jacket by two small, though slightly oversized golden buttons. He also wore white gloves over his hands and a small blue hat with a black stripe running vertically along the centre of the sides and a silver circular badge pinned onto the left side which displayed the letter, V.

However, rather than wait for Euphemia to recover from her shock, Theodore walked over to the right hand side of the limo, and Euphemia found herself following him, though she did not know why. She found that she could not stop herself and that her body seemed to be moving of its own accord, which caused her to panic. However, Theodore seemed oblivious to her panic as he opened the back door of the limo and brought his arm over his front, gesturing for her to go inside.

"The master is inside," he informed her, shooting her what appeared to be an apologetic look, as if he understood that she was scared and confused.

For her part, Euphemia would have scoffed at Theodore for stating the obvious had she not been in the grip of panic. Nonetheless, her body continued to act with a mind of its own, forcing Euphemia to enter the limo before Theodore shut the door.

"Hey, just what's going on here?" Euphemia thought, feeling even more panicked than before, as she found that she could not move her body and not only that, but she could not even open her mouth to speak.

She was currently sitting in a strange limousine with no idea how she got there, or even what was going on. However, the sound of a soothing piano tune suddenly caused her to stop and she forced herself to calm down as she took in her surroundings. The thing that she could pinpoint straight away was that mostly everything appeared to be a variety of different shades of velvet blue. She also noticed that she was not alone. Two others also occupied the room, one of which, Euphemia guessed must be this "master" that Theodore was referring to.

Anyway, the floor was a dark shade of blue and a strangely shaped light shone from the ceiling. There were also two rows of circular lights that ran down the ends of the ceiling and the ceiling itself appeared to be decorated in a series of curves. Curtains hung from the windows, at the sides and over the tops, even along the opposite end of the room from where Euphemia was sitting where there was a grey wall above the sofa separating the room from the driving cab.

To Euphemia's left underneath the windows were two rows of shelves, with a small TV placed in the centre of the top row. Those shelves contained a few empty wine glasses with a bottle or two containing an alcoholic beverage. The inside of the shelves was decked in small blue square titles and the shelves themselves were coloured grey. In the small area between the windows and the shelves, the wall was a dark velvet blue colour with line depression forming triangles, though if not for the short space between the windows and the shelves, they probably would have formed diamond shapes.

Opposite Euphemia was a sofa that formed an L shape as it joined up with another sofa to Euphemia's right. The top of the sofa was a dark greyish velvet blue metallic ornament and the cushion had lines forming diamond shapes and a depression outlining a rectangle on each sofa. Also to Euphemia's right was a grey table between the sofa that joined up with the one opposite her and yet another sofa that ran from where the table was to just before the door, and on top of the table was a wine glass and two wine bottles.

Also situated in the room opposite Euphemia was a small circular table with curved leg bottoms and a square table cloth that was positioned so that to Euphemia, it appeared as a diamond.

All in all, it looked like the interior of a regular limousine with a minibar and a TV built into its side.

Looking outside, she saw nothing but the dense grey fog, though looking through the windows seemed to give it a lighter tint.

However, now that she took in her surroundings, Euphemia brought her attention to the two other occupants. Both of them had their eyes closed, seemingly oblivious to her presence. The one sitting on the sofa to Euphemia's right and next to the table that separated the two sofas was a woman with her hands resting on a book that was resting in her lap. She opened her eyes first and from what Euphemia could see, they were completely devoid of any emotion whatsoever, which reminded her of Unit #031, though this woman was clearly human. Nonetheless, the woman continued to pay her no mind as she just stared straight ahead of her.

She had platinum blonde hair, the same colour as Theodore that was wavy at the back and ran to just underneath her shoulders. Her eyes were also the same brownish orange colour as Theodore's and Euphemia could not help but wonder if they were related. Anyway, looking the woman over, Euphemia saw that she wore blue high-heeled shoes, black leggings, which on first glance appeared to be stockings, though Euphemia noticed a black high-rise collar around her neck with three small golden buttons running down the front, leading her to believe that the leggings and the collar were part of a one-piece suit. She also wore a blue headband over the top of her head near the back where her hair started its wavy pattern.

However, what got Euphemia's attention was the ridiculous looking blue trenchcoat that she wore over her body. The front appeared to be separate from the rest of the jacket, held in place by eight oversized blue buttons with grey outlines The front also had a dark grey outline and yet another line forming a corridor along the edges running from the bottom and over the top with the inner line running underneath the centre of the oversized buttons. The buttons themselves were in four rows of two with the top four over her upper torso separated from the bottom four over her lower torso and thighs by a blue belt with a rather oversized grey buckle. She also had black borderlines that separated the torso from the sleeves and blue rectangular appendixes with dark grey outlines buttoned over the tops of her shoulders with similar oversized buttons to the ones displayed on the front. There were also lines forming diamond shapes running from the front that was a part of the main jacket to right down her sleeves with two more oversized buttons pinned two black sleeve flaps in place.

Looking ahead of her, Euphemia saw what appeared to be an old man with pointed ears and an inhumanly long nose with his hands clasped in front of him and his elbows resting on the table. From the angle Euphemia was watching him, his nose appeared to be curved downwards like a toucan's beck and that it looked as if he was resting his nose on the tops of his hands. Whatever he was, Euphemia doubted that he was human. Like the woman before him, his eyes opened and Euphemia was a bit surprised to see that they appeared to be bloodshot and absent of irises with his pupils appearing to be just two small black dots.

Unlike the woman, though, he stared right at Euphemia, regarding her carefully.

In addition to his eyes, the top of his scalp was bald, though he short greyish white hair running from the sides of his head above his ears right around the back, making it clear that he was balding. It was just the top of his head that was devoid of any hair. However, what Euphemia found strange was that his eyebrows were dark grey-almost black. He wore strange black shoes those ends appeared to raise upwards at a forty-five-degree angle.

"Wearing those must be murder on his feet," Euphemia found herself joking to herself in her head, as she found herself biting her lip to prevent herself from speaking aloud for fear of offending this man, since she had no idea what he could possibly do to her.

He also wore dark grey trousers, a white shirt, a dark grey tie those ends arced diagonally in opposite directions from the knot and a dark grey coat with a breast pocket that contained a white napkin on the left side along with a pair of white gloves over his hands.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room," the strange old man spoke in an almost-stereotypical Transylvanian accent, just as Euphemia felt the limo start to move.

She guessed that Theodore must have gotten back in the driver's cab and was now driving the limo again. Another thing that struck her was the sound of the soothing music that seemed to echo throughout the room. It started with a soothing piano piece before a woman started singing, though, Euphemia could not make out any words. There was also a violin that periodically played throughout certain parts of the tune. All in all, despite this old man's sinister looking appearance, the music definitely provided a rather soothing atmosphere, and Euphemia could not help but relax and feel perfectly at ease. However, there was no radio, so Euphemia had no idea where the music was coming from. In fact, the music seemed to come out of the very room itself, since Euphemia could not pinpoint an exact source and it seemed to come from all around her.

The old man, despite his sinister looking appearance also set the pink-haired Princess at ease. Sure, he may have looked sinister and to anyone watching him, it was like he had sinister intentions indeed, but Euphemia could not feel any bad vibes from him. In fact, the vibes she was getting from him were as soothing as the music she could not help but listen to. She somehow knew that this man meant her no harm, despite the fact that he looked as if he was ready to reach out and molest or violate her at any given moment.

"Ah… it seems that we have yet another guest with an intriguing destiny," the old man went on, ignorant of the pink-haired Princess's observations, "And just when we welcomed another guest. My, my, it is indeed a rarity for us to be playing host to more than one guest at a time nowadays."

He then let out a rather amused chuckle.

"This is turning out to be even weirder than my last dream," Euphemia thought to herself with a somewhat dumbfounded, as she told herself that she had to be dreaming again.

"My name is Igor," the old man went on, as he finally introduced himself, his tone sounding surprisingly soothing as he continued to study the pink-haired Princess curiously, "And I am delighted to make your acquaintance, my dear."

"Okay," Euphemia said with a somewhat confused and reluctant nod of acceptance, finding that she could finally speak again, and she decided that it was best to play along for now, though she was rather unsure of what was happening.

"Besides, if this is just a dream, I know that I'm eventually going to wake up," she told herself contently in her mind, "Yeah, I'm probably lying unconscious somewhere on Shikine Island after being knocked out due to the battle between the Black Knights and my brother's Avalon."

She had to note that this dream was vastly different from her previous dream. Whereas in her previous dream, she was just an invisible observer for the most part, observing Unit #031 and the scientists that experimented with her… at least until right at the end when Unit #031 somehow managed to see her, this time, she was actually interacting with those within her dream.

"This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter," Igor went on to explain, causing Euphemia's eyes to widen in surprise.

She remembered hearing Unit #031's explanation on the Plume of Dusk, which Euphemia figured that was responsible for her sentience, making her different from an AI. Part of that explanation was how it existed in a state between mind and matter.

"So, does that mean that this place and that Plume of Dusk material or whatever are connected somehow?" she thought to herself, before she realised that Igor also said dream and reality, though, had it not been for that, she would have dismissed mind and matter comment as pure coincidence, since she doubted that this dream and her previous dream were related.

"Wait, does that mean, I'm dreaming?" she asked aloud.

"I guess in a way, yes you are," Igor admitted honestly with a small, curt nod of his head, "It's complicated to explain, but I will say that you are fast asleep in the real world."

"Huh?" Euphemia said in confusion.

"Anyway, moving on, this is a room that only those bound by a contract may enter," Igor went on, ignoring the pink-haired Princess's confusion.

"Contract?" Euphemia said, even more confused than she was before, "But I don't remember signing any contract."

"It may be that such a fate awaits you in the near future," Igor went on, ignoring Euphemia, much to the Princess's growing annoyance, as he gestured his left hand towards Euphemia, "Now then… why don't you introduce yourself…?"

"Um… okay, my name is Euphemia li Britannia, and I want to know just what on Earth is going on here?" Euphemia replied in a polite tone, though she shot the strange old man a look that told him that she clearly demanded answers, "And just what do you mean by contract? I don't remember signing anything."

"Hm… I see," Igor said in interest, once again ignoring the pink-haired Princess's questions, "Most unusual. It's been quite a while since we've hosted a guest from outside the country of Japan, and not only that, but a guest whose origins originate in an entirely different world."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Euphemia asked, feeling more confused than before, and she was also starting to get annoyed, since it seemed that this Igor character was dodging her questions, "And I want you to answer my questions!"

"My, my, such impatience," Igor mused with a light chuckle, sounding more amused than put off, which only served to frustrate the pink-haired Princess even more, "Unfortunately, I am unable to answer your questions… or rather, the answers you seek are difficult to put into words. However, I can assure you that you will come to understand in time, as you will experience those answers for yourself, and when you do, I promise that you will come to understand. However, I can answer that, yes, you are correct in claiming that you have not signed the contract yet. However, at some point in the near future you will have to make the decision on whether or not you'll sign it, and when that time comes, I'm sure that you'll make the right choice."

"Okay…" Euphemia said in an unsure tone, as she reluctantly dropped the subject, knowing just by looking at Igor, that that was as best an answer she was going to get for now and that it was useless trying to force more out of him.

"Now then, let's take a look into your future, shall we, my dear?" The long-nosed old man went on, as he then placed his hand over the table and suddenly, a bright white light shone from underneath his hand.

Almost as quickly as the light appeared, it had vanished, and as Igor withdrew his hand, Euphemia's eyes widened in surprise as she saw that a deck of cards were now sitting on top of the table where they had not been before.

"Nice magic trick," she said, as the words automatically left her mouth before she could stop herself.

The deck certainly had not been there before and Euphemia was at a loss to explain how they got there, though the light that Igor caused to appear seemed to have something to do with it.

"It's got to be some kind of trick," Euphemia thought to herself, unsure how to explain it.

"Do you believe in fortune telling?" Igor asked her, as he gestured his hands towards her, and Euphemia soon came to realise that this must be a habit of his, gesturing his hand towards those he was speaking to, since she witnessed that he did it every so often; it was only now that she was just noticing it.

"Not really," Euphemia replied with an honest shake of her head, "My sister once told me that fortunate tellers are mostly con-artists that talk people into parting with their money so they can brag about nonsense that's not true."

"My, such honesty," Euphemia heard a soft female voice chuckle, causing her to turn and look at the woman that also occupied the room.

She did have a soft and gentle smile on her face, but it almost immediately vanished as soon as the pinked-haired Princess had noticed, and was replaced by the woman's usual emotionless expression. What really piqued Euphemia's curiosity though, was the fact that she had not said a word since she entered the limo and seemed quite content to let Igor do all the talking.

"Ahem," Igor said in a somewhat annoyed and disapproving tone, causing Euphemia to turn his attention back to him.

He then waved his hand over the table, causing the top six cards to separate from the deck and form a hexagon shape around the table with the deck itself in the centre.

"Like I told your fellow guest, each reading is done with the same cards, yet the result is always different," the long-nosed old man in a tone of slight amusement mixed with wonder and curiosity, and let out a small amused chuckle, "Life itself follows the same principles, doesn't it?"

"If you say so," Euphemia said with a hesitant nod, unsure what she should think, but at the same time, deciding that it was best to play along for now.

Reaching out to the card on the upper left, he turned it over, and Euphemia saw the depiction of a tower being struck by lightning with two people falling to the ground, though it was uncertain whether they had jumped or had fallen, and the bottom of the card depicted, XVI, the Roman numeral for sixteen.

"Hm… this is most unusual," Igor said in a curious tone, as he raised an eyebrow, "The Tower in the upright position represents the immediate future."

"And what's unusual about that?" Euphemia asked, suppressing the urge to gulp.

She knew that he was doing a tarot card reading, and despite not knowing much about tarot cards or the arcana, she did know that the Tower was not a card that brought good news.

"In itself, nothing, it's just that I did a reading with your fellow guest, and this was the card that first appeared when he was here," Igor replied simply, "It seems that a terrible catastrophe is imminent. I have to say that it is most unusual for the same card to appear at the beginning for two readings in a row."

"So there was someone else who was put through the same experience as me," Euphemia thought to herself, despite Igor's previous comments about this "fellow guest".

"The card indicating the future beyond that is…" Igor went on, pausing as he flipped the upper right card, which depicted a long-haired woman that appeared to be reading a book with the letter's J and B behind her with the J to her right and the B to her left, and the bottom of the card depicted, II, the Roman numeral for two, "The Priestess in the upright position. This card represents you, my dear, more specifically hidden knowledge, untapped potential and mystery… very interesting indeed."

"So does that mean that I have some hidden power that I'll tap into in future?" Euphemia said jokingly with a small laugh, unable to help herself.

"Possibly," Igor replied, catching Euphemia by surprise, since she had expected him to reprimand her for not taking this seriously, but he seemed to humour her, "In any case, moving on."

He then flipped over the bottom left card, which depicted the drawing of a five pointed star with a face drawn on it and depicted at the bottom was XVII, the Roman numeral for seventeen.

"The Star in the upright position," he went on, either ignorant or uncaring of the pink-haired Princess's surprise, "This card represents faith optimism and trust. This is most interesting."

Before Euphemia could reply, he reached out for the bottom right card, but as he went to flip it over, it seemed to fall from his hand landing in neither the upright nor the reverse positions. From both Euphemia and Igor's perspectives it was at a sideway angle, and it depicted a skull along with a figure wielding a scythe that Euphemia could easily identify as the Grim Reaper and at the bottom of the card was depicted XIII, the Roman numeral for thirteen.

"Death…!" Euphemia gasped as the colour suddenly drained from her face, knowing what the card was, "D-does this mean I'm going to die?"

Igor just chuckled softly, though there was nothing sinister about the way he chuckled. It was more of a gentle reassuring chuckle.

"My dear girl, everyone dies eventually," he said in a gentle, reassuring and somewhat soothing tone, "From the moment we are born, we are already on the journey towards death. However, the road towards the grave is not set in stone. In any case, this card does not necessarily mean that the end of this journey will result in your death."

"Journey?" Euphemia asked, once again feeling confused.

"The Death Card is not necessarily a premonition of death," Igor went on, choosing to ignore Euphemia, "It can also be a premonition of rebirth, of change and a turning point in one's life. However, this is most unusual as it is in neither the upright or reversed positions."

"Well, that's because it fell out of your hand," Euphemia pointed out.

"Yes, but here in this Velvet Room, nothing happens without a reason," Igor explained, giving the pink-haired Princess a look, indicating that he would not tolerate backtalk for the time being, "In other words, there was a reason that the card slipped from my grip."

"Yeah, the lack of friction in those gloves," Euphemia thought, while biting her lip yet again, in order to prevent herself from speaking aloud.

She could see the look that Igor was giving her and knew that it was best not to test her luck with him, since just by looking at him, she easily guessed that he was most certainly not someone who would take too kindly to being offended.

"Anyway, it seems that when you leave here, you will encounter the same misfortune that will befall your fellow guest at your destination and a great mystery will be imposed upon you both, which will lead to you discovering a power that has been lying dormant within you, after which, you will be called upon to assist your fellow guest in some way," the long-nosed old man continued to explain, deciding to move things along, "In the coming days, as I said before, you will enter into a contract of some sort, after which you will return here. The coming year is a turning point in your destiny. Should you choose to ignore the plight of your fellow guest and let the mystery go unsolved, your future may be forever lost."

"Huh, so basically, I don't have much of a choice then?" Euphemia summed up, after thinking what the strange old man just said, "I could ignore it if I choose, but it'll mean my demise, is that it?"

"Pretty much," Igor admitted with a nod, "However, since the last card in the reading was neither upright nor reversed, who knows what could happen. Even if the mystery is solved, the result could still end in your death."

"That's reassuring," Euphemia said sarcastically, feeling a sense of fear enter her mind.

Honestly, she did not know why, but as much as she did not want to believe what she was being told, and that this Igor character was just pulling a massive prank on her, part of her just could not shake off the niggling fear that it was all real. As much as she wanted to laugh it off as one big joke, she found that she just could not shake off those feelings that this was all just a prelude something big. Feelings of doubt and fear plagued her mind, and no matter how much she tried to dismiss them, it only seemed to make them persist in pestering her even more.

"It's not the first time that the end of a guest's journey has resulted in their death," Igor informed her with a somewhat sad sigh, but almost immediately perked up again, "However, death is just one possibility. Nonetheless, even if you survive, as I said before, the coming year marks a turning point in your destiny. Regardless of what happens, you will be forever changed. Remember, the Death Card can also symbolise rebirth."

"Putting it like that makes me feel that perhaps death is the better of the two," Euphemia grumbled unhappily, shooting the long-nosed man a rather unhappy glare.

"Anyway, my duty is to provide assistance to our guests to ensure that ill fates such as that do not happen," Igor went on, completely ignoring the pink-haired Princess's discomfort.

With that said, he once again waved his hand over the table and all the cards on top of the table vanished.

After a brief silence, Igor then gestured his left hand towards the woman sitting to his left, and truth be told, Euphemia had started to forget that she was in the room since she had not uttered a word other than that comment she made to herself, but other than that, she reminded silent.

"Ah, how rude of me, once again I have neglected to introduce my assistant to you," he said, causing Euphemia to give him a confused look.

"You mean you forgot to introduce her to your other guest," she corrected in a dumbfounded tone.

"This is Margaret," Igor went on, ignoring Euphemia's comment, as he not only gestured his hand towards her, but also turned to face her, "She is a resident of this place, like myself."

"My name is Margaret," the woman said, introducing herself in a rather cold emotionless tone, "I am here to accompany you on your journey."

"And I did introduce her to your fellow guest," Igor added, indicating that he had heard Euphemia's previous comment, "It was just after our business had concluded, much like with you."

"Wait, hold on, residents, you mean you actually live here?" Euphemia said, as a realisation hit her after going over what Igor said.

"Yes, though the Velvet Room changes in appearance depending on the situation," Igor explained with a humorous chuckle.

"And in case you're wondering, since my hair and eyes are the same colour as the driver's, Theo is my younger brother," Margaret put in before Euphemia could reply to the long-nosed man's comment, though unlike before, her tone had taken a gentle and soft edge to it as she flashed the pink-haired Princess a brief smile, letting her know that she was capable of displaying emotion.

"Anyway, for now, our business is concluded," Igor said simply with a tone of finality, "We shall attend to the details another time."

"Huh, now just you wait a minute!" Euphemia exclaimed in sudden surprise, as the long-nosed man's comment caught her off guard.

"Until then, farewell, my dear…" Igor concluded before Euphemia could say any more, and the pink-haired Princess suddenly found her vision gradually fading to black, and she also found that she could no longer speak or even think straight.

* * *

**Author's Notes** – Finally, chapter 2. I've been busy familiarising myself with the other Persona Games, since I'm planning on having characters from those games make an appearance at some point.


	3. Inaba, Town in another World

**Euphemia of the Personas**

**Inaba, Town in another World**

**Disclaimer** – I do not own either Code Geass or the Shin Megami Tensei Persona franchise. Code Geass is the property of Sunrise, Gorō Taniguchi and Ichirō Ōkouchi and the Shin Megami Tensei Persona franchise is the property of Atlus.

* * *

A good few hours had passed on Shikine-jima since the attempt to kill Zero; "Area Eleven's" most wanted terrorist, had gone awry, mainly thanks to Major Kururugi Suzaku, who seemed to have developed a change of heart at the last possible minute, which had led to him disregarding his orders in order to preserve his own life. Not only that, but apparently, upon learning that they were intending on sacrificing her Personal Knight, Princess Euphemia li Britannia, Third Princess of the Holy Britannian Empire, had commandeered a Portman Knightmare Frame, and went off in the direction of where Suzaku had been restraining Zero, intent on saving the "Eleven" boy.

However, what happened not so long ago remained a mystery. Somehow, after the Avalon, Prince Schneizel's personal flagship, had initiated its attack, Princess Euphemia, Suzaku, Zero and one of Zero's own subordinates, who had exited their Knightmare in a bid to try and save their leader, had all mysteriously vanished, and it was as if they had all disappeared into thin air. All that was left was the abandoned Portman atop a cliff, which had been recovered and the Lancelot, which was mysteriously empty, and the mysterious thing was, the cockpit was still closed, meaning that, by all logic, Suzaku should still be inside, and yet, the cockpit was somehow completely empty. Suzaku had somehow managed to defy all logic, and quite possibly even the laws of physics, and exit the Lancelot without opening the cockpit hatch, and if that was not enough, inspections of the Lancelot had found that there was no possible way he could have slipped out via alternate means, as there were no alternate means he could have pulled it off. It was as if he had completely vanished into thin air.

Anyway, while the Lancelot had been taken aboard the Avalon, along with Lloyd Asplund and Cécile Croomy of the Britannian Special Research Division, Advanced Special Envoy Engineering Corps, ASEEC or Camelot, as they had dubbed themselves, a search and rescue operation had been mobilised in order to search and retrieve Princess Euphemia, with soldiers swarming over where Suzaku had been restraining Zero.

Soldiers and Knightmares surrounded the crater that Zero had lured Suzaku to as part of his trap, guarding the rim, even as more soldiers had gone down into the depression armed with metal detectors, and were busy canvassing the area, even as someone barked orders to them.

"Find her!" the voice of Lieutenant-Colonel Fayer bellowed down to them from where he stood, "Whatever it takes, find Princess Euphemia!"

Fayer stood on the northern part of the crater's rim with his hands clasped behind his back and two officers, one standing on either side of him, with the one standing to his left holding a portfolio booklet on the right side of his front.

"Why couldn't she behave the way a Sub-Viceroy Figurehead is excepted to?" he practically growled to himself in frustration, and then, he shuddered in fear upon thinking about the possible repercussions should news of Princess Euphemia's sudden and mysterious disappearance reach her sister, "What a situation… if Princess Cornelia hears about this…"

He trailed off daring not to finish that train of thought. He had only learned of the Third Princess's apparent stunt after communications between him and Suzaku had somehow been cut off, and yet, since he was in charge of the base at Shikine-jima, he knew that, unless Princess Euphemia was found, preferably safe and sound, he would be the one who would get it in the neck and face Princess Cornelia's wrath, and not just him, but he also feared for the lives of his entire family.

As Chief General of the Imperial Army, Princess Cornelia's reputation, as both the Witch of Britannia and the Goddess of Victory, were well known throughout Britannia and the entire world. She had been responsible for the establishment of many "Areas" and she was also a decorated war heroine and battle-hardened war veteran. News of her various escapades fascinated Britannians the world over and struck fear into the hearts of many of the Empire's enemies, and several were even inspired to join the military in the hopes of becoming just like her.

However, what the masses of the general public did not know was that Princess Cornelia was also known for her short-temper and merciless and ruthless attitude when it came to things such as insubordination, or even treason. Among the military, Princess Cornelia was ruthless and was known for her short-fuse and fiery temper. Just about anything, even if it was small and, ultimately insignificant, could set her off into a furious tirade, and when it came to things that she was not happy with, she always needed to have someone to blame in order to take her anger and frustrations out on, and so, she always seemed to have a scapegoat on hand in those instances. Unfortunately, because of this aspect of her personality, it had led to some rather terrifyingly unnerving, frighteningly unsavoury and sometimes, rather obviously exaggerated rumours to float around concerning her.

It was clear to Fayer that, at least some of those rumours were clearly highly exaggerated to ridiculous degrees and blown out of proportion, but unfortunately, he did not want to see just where the reality ended and the exaggeration began, since, he knew that when Princess Cornelia was in one of her bad moods, it was easy to see why some of those rumours were overly exaggerated, and one would be tempted to believe them, and unfortunately for the military, Princess Cornelia did not exclude them from experiencing her wrath. It was not just her enemies that she took her frustrations out on, but also her allies, usually when there was no one else around for her to target and shunt the blame, for when things went wrong, onto.

Fayer just knew that unless Princess Euphemia was found, he would be the next one to face the Witch of Britannia's vengeful wrath, since he was in charge of the base that Princess Euphemia had been visiting. The fact that he had no knowledge of what Princess Euphemia had done until after her disappearance would mean absolutely nothing to Princess Cornelia. In her view, since he was in charge, anything bad that happened within the base, and by extension, the whole island, was his fault by default, regardless if he knew about it or not. One rumour that was circulating was that when Princess Cornelia had already chosen her target, she did not care whether they were at fault or not and proceeded to unleash her fury on them regardless, and would, in the cases of when it was clearly obvious that her anger was misplaced, come up with excuses, even rather obviously flimsy and ridiculous excuses to justify herself.

Another rumour that circulated was that whenever one of Princess Cornelia's subordinates had upset her, was that she did not just target them, she targeted their entire families. Whether this was true or not, the Lieutenant-Colonel did not know, but he was not intending to find out. Evidence in the past regarding those unlucky enough to get on the Princess's bad side seemed to suggest that that particular rumour was, at the very least, partially true, though, he could not be sure just how much of it was actually true, and he was in no hurry to find out; especially considering one such rumoured incident when Princess Cornelia supposedly had a nobleman arrested for pointing out that her hair was a mess and then proceeded to shoot his seven-year-old son at point-blank range, and in cold blood, when she had ignored his pleas to spare his father, and she only shot him when he called her a "bad lady", and then, she proceeded to have both his parents executed to cover up the fact that she practically murdered a minor in cold blood.

"A little exaggerated, I'd say, but I'm not going to try my luck," Fayer thought, as he reached into his right trouser pocket and pulled out a mobile phone, "Thankfully, I thought ahead."

He then proceeded to push the buttons that brought up his call index page and scrolled down till he reached his wife's number, and then pushed the call button, and sighed in relief when his wife answered after only two rings.

"Hello," a woman's voice came from the other end.

"Hello, dear, it's me," Fayer replied with a rather sad sigh, and then started talking before his wife could ask just why he called, "Listen, you remember what we discussed a few months back."

"Uh huh," his wife said in a rather fearful and uneasy tone, obviously having sensed the urgency in his voice and knowing what he was talking about.

"Well, it seems that my worst fears may have come to pass, so please take the children, and you know what to do, don't you?" Fayer went on in a hushed voice so that no one would hear, and he even looked around to see if anyone else was listening in.

"I… I understand," Fayer's wife said with a bit of a stutter and a rather sad and depressed sigh, realising that there was a real distinct possibility that she would never see her husband alive again, and also knowing that it was pointless to argue since they had discussed this at length in the past.

Fayer sighed as he hung up. He could only hope that Princess Euphemia would be recovered soon, since he knew that if not, then he would, most undoubtedly, be facing execution by Princess Cornelia's hand.

Thankfully, his family would be spared. He had heard of Princess Cornelia's fearsome reputation ever since he joined the military, and upon receiving word that she would be replacing her half-brother, Prince Clovis, as "Area Eleven's" acting Viceroy, he had started making arrangements to move his family out of "Area Eleven" and to somewhere in the EU to keep them from suffering Her Highness's wrath, should Fayer ever incur it. He pretty much guaranteed that should Princess Cornelia target him for some reason or another, only he would suffer the consequences.

Unfortunately, it was something that his wife disagreed with, and upon telling her of his plans, she had fiercely objected and insisted that he was exaggerating and it had led to a massive argument, and Fayer had told his wife repeatedly about what he heard and was not going to risk the possibility that those rumours were indeed, exaggerated. It had taken a few days, but eventually, his wife had come to agree, albeit rather grudgingly and reluctantly. She had resided herself to her husband's plan and had obviously held out the hope that it would never come to pass, but unfortunately, it seemed that had been for naught. When he called her up, she knew that it was pointless to argue, since all their arguing had been done in the past and she knew she had no choice but to reside herself to the fact that there could be an undoubtedly high possibility that her husband was going to be executed.

However, unbeknownst to Fayer, who was so caught up in his own thoughts that he failed to notice the officer to his right inch away from him and he took out his own mobile phone and started scrolling down his call index till he came to a particular number before pushing the call button, and then, he placed the phone to his ear.

"Yes, is this General Andreas Darlton?" the officer said in the same quiet, hushed tone as Fayer as the person on the other end picked up.

"Yes, who is this?" the voice of Andreas Darlton inquired with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"This is Captain Daryl Hazewater of the Shikine Island Military Base," the officer, Hazewater said, looking around, or more specifically, at the Lieutenant-Colonel to see if he had noticed him, and fortunately for him, the Lieutenant-Colonel was still too preoccupied with his own thoughts to have noticed, "Listen, I have some rather interesting news that Her Highness, Princess Cornelia, may wish to know."

* * *

For perhaps the second time in the space of forty-eight hours, Euphemia's vision was nothing but darkness, like at some points during her dream in which she encountered that mysterious robot girl, Unit #031 and those scientists that had been working and experimenting on her. However, unlike before, all she could hear was static, as if she was watching a TV and there was no sound. However, before she could contemplate this, a TV screen suddenly appeared before her vision with a rather hazy, grainy, unfocused and poor-quality image, though from the viewpoint, it seemed as if the camera filming whatever it was, was situated underneath a table, as the pink-haired Princess could make out the silhouette of a table leg to the left.

A pair of feet suddenly entered the screen and appeared to be moving backwards, indicating that the person was backing up. Looking at the feet, Euphemia could see that they had on a pair of women's shoes and stockings, indicating that the person in the image was most undoubtedly a woman, though, the image was too unfocussed and poor in quality for her to make out any colours. However, the screen, itself, seemed to be tinted with a dark yellow hue. On the screen, the woman's feet quickly moved out of the camera's line of vision, and Euphemia could clearly see that she was backing away from someone, and she did not have to wait long to figure out who she was backing away from as the dark silhouette of a rather bulky foot also entered the camera's line of vision.

"Huh, what the… just what is this?" Euphemia said to herself in confusion, having no idea what was going on, or even why she was witnessing this, even as the image on the screen switched to show a short-haired woman who appeared to be screaming with a terrified look on her face, and she was also violently thrashing around with her arms outstretched in front of her and she appeared to be leaning backwards.

Euphemia then knew that this must be the woman, whose feet she saw in the first image, and judging from what she was seeing, it was clear that she was trying desperately to fend someone off, though, the pink-haired Princess could not make out exactly where she or her mysterious attacker were, but she did manage to make out a rectangular shade covering over a light-bulb attached to a wall in the background, which seemed to indicate that they were indoors and in a room of some kind.

The image on the screen suddenly changed yet again and showed the shadowed silhouette of a rather bulky hand, which had wrapped itself around the mysterious woman's neck and proceeded to hoist her into the air. Apparently, whoever this woman was, she had failed to fend off her attacker, though, Euphemia could not make out much of exactly who had attacked her, since he… at least she was almost certain that the attacker was a man, had appeared as a shadowy silhouette, at least the parts of him that Euphemia could see; his foot and outstretched arm as he hoisted the poor woman into the air. However, one thing that Euphemia could make out despite the images' poor quality was that the man had a rather bulky build.

The one thing that did bother her was the lack of audio. All she could hear was the annoying sound of static that had undoubtedly drowned out the woman's screams as she struggled.

However, suddenly, the sound of the static came to an abrupt halt as the image of a platinum blonde-haired woman with brownish orange eyes dressed in blue flashed before her, replacing the screen, and then after a brief flash of white, a short balding old man with pointed ears and a long, toucan beak-shaped long nose and black bloodshot eyes also flashed before her, and then suddenly, after hearing a high-pitched, what sounded like a cross between a ringing and pinging sound, she felt her eyes shoot open as memories of what had transpired from what happened at Shikine-jima up until now flooded back into her mind.

* * *

The sky was overcast, that was the first thing that Euphemia managed to register as her eyes suddenly snapped open. It was not raining, though, judging by the heavy grey colour of the clouds; it looked as if they could start depositing their load at any given moment and that when it started, the rain would be coming down rather heavily. Another thing, she realised, was that she was lying on her back, though she did not feel as if she was lying straight, since her line of vision appeared to be at a slightly diagonal angel. She could also feel that the surface underneath her was rather uneven, as if she had been lying on top of a group of boulders.

"Huh, this isn't Shikine Island," she said to herself, as she suddenly turned her head and noticed that she was lying inside a metal red rectangular container with an open top, and not only that, but she also noticed that she was lying on top of black bags filled with rubbish giving off a variety of different rotting smells.

The colour suddenly drained from her face as she realised that she was, mostly likely, lying in some kind of dumpster somewhere, but the question was, where?

She tried to pick herself up, but due the unevenness of the rubbish bags beneath her combined with a feeling of sudden dizziness, she found herself slipping and falling back down, much to her displeasure, and she also felt a rather splitting headache welling up in her forehead. She then let out a small groan of annoyance. Just where was she? She certainly did not remember falling into a dumpster. She remembered everything from trying to save Suzaku from that attack to the mysterious dark-haired woman with either red or brown eyes that flashed before her eyes before she ended up on a dark mysterious road in the middle of nowhere surrounded by fog, and then ending up entering a velvet blue-coloured limousine and meeting a short balding old man with pointed ears and a toucan beck-shaped long nose called Igor and his, mostly-silent, platinum blonde-haired assistant, who was called Margaret.

"Oh yeah, those two," she thought with a sulk, remembering that Igor spoke with her while Margaret mostly remained silent, and he gave her rather cryptic and unnerving warnings about what could possibly happen in her future.

That really annoyed the pink-haired Princess to no end. She wished that he had been a bit more open and less cryptic. However, as much as she wanted to dismiss his claims as the delusional ramblings of a senile old man, she found that she just could not dismiss what he had told her, and in truth, it scared her, especially when he told her that she could wind up dead regardless of the outcome of some journey he mentioned that she was supposed to be going on. Her first instinct had been to dismiss him as talking nonsense, but the more she tried, the more frightening it all seemed to become, as she could not help but wonder if he had in fact been telling the truth, and it brought out a feeling of fearful dread in her.

Of course, it did not necessarily mean that she was going to die; it was just a possibility, but even so, she remembered him mentioning that even if she managed to escape death, she would be forever changed. However, Euphemia just could not shake off the fear of the possibility of her death coming to pass, though, she had to admit, that with Igor mentioning on how she would change forever in some way in the event of escaping her demise, she had to wonder if death was the more preferable option. No, she did not want to die, neither did she want to change. She still had things she intended to do.

Anyway, upon explaining all that he was willing to explain, at least for the time being, Igor had apparently dismissed her, though, Euphemia still had questions she wanted to ask him, but her vision had faded to black, she could not speak, and even her thoughts lost their coherency, and the next thing she remembered was watching that strange poor-quality TV programme in which she witnessed a woman being attacked by some bulky stranger shrouded in black silhouette before images of Igor and Margaret flashed before her and she woke up, finding herself in this dumpster.

"Just what is going on?" she asked herself frantically, wracking her brain, as she tried to come up with a possible explanation to explain all this, "Shouldn't I still be on Shikine Island, or at least in the sickbay of either my brother's Avalon or the Military Base?"

That was something that puzzled her. She could easily discount her encounter with the mysterious Igor, along with witnessing the poor-quality TV images of the mysterious woman being attacked as just a crazy dream, but that did not explain how she ended up in the dumpster. She remembered that back at Shikine-jima before she had found herself surrounded by fog that she caught a brief glimpse of a woman that flashed before her eyes, and then her vision exploded into a sea of white. She reckoned that she must have fallen into unconsciousness, and since she had been standing atop a cliff, there was a possibility that she had fallen over the edge, meaning that she should have sustained gravely serious injuries… that is, assuming she survived the fall, but if she had fallen over the edge then she figured that she must have survived since she was still alive.

However, not only was she somewhere she concluded that she should not be, but she was also perfectly fine for the most part. She had not sustained a single injury that could have come from a fall, and in fact, the only pain she felt, aside from her current headache, was the pain from the discomfort of lying atop the rubbish bags, which was more of an annoyance than excruciating. She figured that perhaps she may not have been as close to the edge of the cliff as she had originally thought and had passed out atop the cliff.

"Was I deliberately thrown in here?" the pink-haired princess thought to herself, as a new thought occurred to her, one that filled her with pure anger, "Did those soldiers deliberately throw me in here like I was trash?"

That was one possibility, she reasoned. She must be in a dumpster somewhere on the base. The soldiers must have recovered her and then discarded her as if she was trash because she had gone against protocol and risked her life for a "Number".

"Discrimination against the Numbers is Britannia's National Policy", those had been her sister's words, and it was a policy that she did not agree with and downright detested.

Euphemia was not as stupid as many took her for. She knew that her views differed from those of the majority of Britannians, and she had pretty much announced that openly when she had gone to try and save Suzaku, whom she was convinced had been set up in order to be sacrificed, despite all he had done for the Empire, and all because of his ethnicity. She knew that many Britannians viewed "Numbers" and those who sympathised with them as trash, and she figured that she was no exception, despite the fact that she was royalty.

She knew that the soldiers probably did not take a positive view of her actions and must have, in their minds, reduced her to the same level as the "Numbers", since she had risked her life to save one. Perhaps being put in this dumpster was meant to symbolise that she was now considered "trash" by the soldiers who knew of her attempt to save Suzaku; that because she risked her life to save a "Number" she was no better than one herself, regardless of her previous social standing.

"I wonder how Cornelia will react to this," she thought before she took a deep sniff, and then felt an overwhelming wave of nausea rush through her, as she lurched forwards and placed her hands over her mouth, as she felt her stomach attempt to push its contents right back up and out of her mouth.

It was only now that she realised that the awful stench coming through the bags from the various items of rubbish was rather overpowering, and the thing was, it was not just one smell, but a variety of different smells that all combined together into one overpowering nauseating aroma that no one could bare even thinking about. Thankfully, somehow, Euphemia was able to keep herself from throwing up, though, she clamped her index finger and her thump on her nose.

However, before she could try and pick herself up a second time and get out of the dumpster, she heard what sounded like a car engine and guessed that a car had just pulled up somewhere nearby, though, as soon as she heard the car stop, the engine also stopped, indicating that the driver had turned the engine off. After that, she heard what sounded like the soft tapping of footsteps running on tarmac.

"Konnichiwa," she heard an unfamiliar, and somewhat raspy voice say, surprising her, since she knew that Konnichiwa was a word used for greeting other people in the Japanese language, "Welcome to Moel."

"Moel?" Euphemia asked herself in confusion, knowing that she never heard the name before, "What's that supposed to be?"

What was more, the person, whom she guessed was the person running towards the car, had spoken Japanese.

"So, does this mean I'm not on Shikine Island like I originally feared?" she went on in her thoughts, feeling more confused than ever, "But if that's the case, then where am I?"

She suddenly heard someone else talking, though, they were speaking far too quietly for her to hear exactly what they were saying, though, she could tell that it was a man talking, and this was followed by an even quieter voice saying something in reply, though, like with the man, she could not make out what was said and sounded more like them acknowledging that they heard what the man said. She then heard what could clearly be identified as the opening of a door, indicating that someone must be getting out of the car, and then the door closed again. The sound of another door opening and closing was also heard, though this time it sounded a lot gentler than the first, meaning that the second person who exited the car was not as strong as the first.

"It's in the back to your left," the voice of the first person who had spoken, the one that was loud enough for Euphemia to hear clearly, said, obviously speaking to one of the car's former occupants, "You know which way's left? The side you don't hold your hashi in."

"Hashi, chopsticks," Euphemia said to herself, somehow able to understand what the Japanese word meant despite never having heard it spoken before, which only served to further confuse her.

Sure, she had to admit that having Suzaku as a Knight of Honour had its advantages, in that she learned a little Japanese from him, but she had never heard the Japanese word for chopsticks being spoken before, and yet, she found that she could understand its meaning as clearly as if it had been spoken in English. It was a bit scary, she had to admit, since she found herself understanding a language that she had never really encountered all that much before in the past, at least until she had moved to "Area Eleven". In fact, she then suddenly remembered during her dream involving Unit #031, that she could read the nametags of the three scientists and understood what the kanji symbols meant despite having never having encountered any of the three alphabets that the Japanese People use in their writings. She had to admit that that was also a bit scary, and she could not help but wonder if the fact that she could understand kanji symbols from a supposedly unrelated dream and the fact that she could understand Japanese words, while encountering neither in the past were both connected somehow.

"Just what's going on here?" she thought, as she felt a wave of fear well up inside her, since she did not know how to explain it.

However, the sound of a soft and quiet voice, which Euphemia could now identify as belonging to a girl, a child most likely somewhere in her pre-teen years at that, replying to the first voice brought her out of her thoughts, and despite this girl being too quiet to be heard properly, the pink-haired Princess also detected a hint of frustrated annoyance in her tone.

"I think everyone knows the difference between right and left," she mused to herself with a soft chuckle, guessing that that was what the girl was frustrated about, "You'd have to be considerably dumb, like dumber than dumb if you can't tell the difference."

Afterwards, she heard the soft patter of footsteps running off, though they sounded as if they were getting nearer, indicating to Euphemia that wherever she was going, she either had to pass the dumpster or there was a door near the dumpster that she had to go through in order to get wherever it was she was going. Anyway the sound of a car door opening and closing grabbed her attention as she realised that the car must have had a third occupant.

"Are you going on a tabi?" the first voice asked, though Euphemia could not tell just who they were talking to; in fact, listening to this voice, Euphemia found herself unable to determine the person's gender.

"Īe, we just went to pick my oi up from the eki," the voice of the man that Euphemia heard speaking before said in reply to the question, and this time, he was speaking loud enough for the pink-haired Princess to hear clearly, "He just moved here for the tokai."

"So this man's nephew just moved here from a city somewhere and was picked up at a train station," Euphemia mused to herself, as she could not help but listen in, "Also, tabi, in addition to meaning journey is also the name giving to traditional Japanese socks that have the big toe of the foot separated from the rest of the toes and can be worn by both men and women along with zori or geta sandals, as well as other traditional thonged footwear. However, for the moment, I just want to know where in the world is "here", exactly?"

"The tokai, ne…?" the first voice replied in a curious tone, though quieter than before, they were still loud enough for Euphemia to hear.

"Ne, just one of many Japanese word that can mean, huh," the pink-haired Princess mused to herself, once again translate the Japanese, upon hearing the person speak, "Though I think it's official translation is I."

"Fill up my car while you're at it," the man then said, as he seemed to issue an order, "Regular's fine."

"Hai, right away, sir!" the first voice replied, obviously deciding to follow this man's order, much to Euphemia's confusion, "Arigatōgozaimasu."

The man then mumbled something to himself, seemingly ignoring the first voice's offer of thanks, though, once again, he was too quiet for the pink-haired Princess to make out what he was saying.

There was a short pause as Euphemia heard the soft patter of footsteps walking away, indicating to her that the man must be going off somewhere.

"Are you in kōkō?" the first voice suddenly asked, and at first, Euphemia thought that they were talking to themselves, but then, remembering the third time the car door opened and closed, she realised that there was someone else there.

"Kōkō, high school," Euphemia mused, finding it confusing just how those people, whom she guessed must be Japanese, were going about their daily lives seemingly not minding the fact that they had be reduced to mere "Numbers" by Britannia, which really meant that the Britannians did not really view them as people.

It was strange to hear Japanese being spoken, let alone that "Elevens" were allowed to drive any sort of vehicle. It was a known fact that in Britannia's conquered "Areas", "Numbers" entering the settlements had heavy restrictions placed on them; two of which were that they were not to speak their native language, and that they were not allowed to drive any type of vehicle whatsoever, so this served to confuse her, since, if what she was hearing was correct, the people she was listening to were clearly Japanese, and yet, they seemed either oblivious or uncaring towards Britannian repercussions… unless of course Euphemia was in a ghetto somewhere, in which the "Numbers" could do as they pleased, as there was nothing in the ghettos that was of any interest to the Britannians, but Euphemia doubted that she was in a ghetto, as there had been no ghetto on, or anywhere near Shikine-jima; in fact, the only installation on the island was the military base and the nearest ghetto was miles away on the Japanese mainland.

"Are… eh, hai," a new voice came, replying to the first voice's question, and something about this new voice sounded rather familiar to Euphemia, she just could not help but wonder just where she had heard that voice before.

"Are, yet another way of saying, huh in Japanese," the pink-haired Princess told herself, just to be sure that she heard right.

"Does is surprise a tokai shōnen how little there is to do out here?" the first voice went on, as if the second voice had not answered.

"Tokai shōnen, that sounds wrong," Euphemia mused, somehow knowing how complex the Japanese language was and how there were sometimes many ways of saying the same thing, "Ichi no shōnen sounds more right."

"Not really," the second voice, whom Euphemia figured belonged to a teenaged boy replied, and she somehow knew that he shrugged despite not seeing him, "From what I've seen so far, there literally is nothing out here."

"Hai, there's so little to do, I'm sure you'll get bored fast," the first voice replied in agreement, making Euphemia all the more curious to know where she was, "You'll either be hanging out with your tomodachi or doing part-time jobs. Speaking of which, we're actually looking for part-time help right now."

"Are?" the teenaged boy said in surprise, as Euphemia heard footsteps again, though they were brief, indicating that one of the two people talking walked closer to the other, "Eh, kekkōdesu."

"In other words, no thanks," Euphemia mused to herself, as she translated the Japanese yet again, so she could be sure that she understood properly, "And tomodachi is a word meaning friends."

"Give it some thought, why don't you?" the first voice said in a somewhat polite tone, though Euphemia could tell that they were intending to make the boy at least consider it, "We don't mind if you're a gakusei."

"Student," Euphemia went on translating, and suddenly decided that she'd heard enough and started to lift herself up.

"Ara, ē, I might just do that," the boy's voice replied, obviously deciding to indulge the person he was talking to, even as Euphemia started to pick herself up.

However, the sound of footsteps made her stop as she heard them close to her at first, but then got further away. She guessed that the girl must have returned from wherever it was she had gone off to.

"Ara, I should get back to work," the first voice suddenly said, probably realising that they had a job to do upon the girl's arrival.

The sound of footsteps, obviously whoever it was who had been talking was heard and then the sound of someone stumbling slightly could be heard, though from the sound of it, it seemed as if whoever stumbled managed to catch themselves and prevent themselves from falling over. Euphemia then heard the girl talking again, though like before, she was speaking too quietly for her to hear what she was saying, but she sounded somewhat concerned.

The sound of another set of footsteps caught Euphemia's attention, and she guessed that the man must also be returning from where he had been.

"Sorry for the delay," he went on to say in a somewhat apologetic tone, but then sounded just as concerned as the girl when he spoke next, "Are, what's wrong? You okay?"

"Ā, it's nothing," the voice of the teenaged boy said in response, "It passed. I just felt a bit light-headed for a moment."

"That's understandable," the man said in an understanding tone, "It must have been a long trip for you. Why not take a little walk, get some fresh air? Just let me know when you're ready to go."

There was a brief silence and Euphemia just knew that the boy was obviously considering what the man, whom she knew to be his uncle, had said.

"I'll wait here," the man went on, obviously reassuring his nephew, "Why don't you take a walk and get some fresh air? The shōten machi is near the house, so you should get to know where all the stores are."

"Shōten machi, so I'm in some kind of shopping district?" the pink-haired Princess said, as her confusion rose even more, "No, that can't be possible! Just where on Earth am I, and how did I get here? This doesn't make any sense!"

She then grabbed the side of the dumpster and pulled herself up, managing to pull herself upright and the majority of her was visible above the dumpster, but unfortunately standing on top of uneven rubbish bags was not the best option, as Euphemia's weight pressing down on them caused one of them to dislodge, and the movement caused the pink-haired Princess to stumble and fall out of the dumpster and face-first onto the ground.

"Ā kami, are you alright?" another new, and concerned voice came, and Euphemia heard footsteps running towards her.

"Huh?" she said, feeling rather disorientated, as she found herself momentarily unable to focus of her surroundings, feeling her headache flare up slightly.

Currently, she was lying face down and staring right into grey tarmac. She also felt somewhat dizzy, and looking up to her left, she could make out at least five people starting to congregate around her, though her vision was too unfocused to make out any their features, but she could tell that at least one of them was a child, whom she guessed was the girl that had been too quiet for her to make out what she was saying.

"Nē, are you okay?" the same voice as before asked again, sounding even more concerned than before, "What were you doing in that dumpster?"

"That's okay, I'll handle this," the voice that Euphemia recognised as the first voice she heard and she saw one of the onlookers turning to address another, "You can go, I'm sure that you still have haitatsu to make."

"Deliveries," Euphemia said to herself, translating the Japanese word, though she had spoken aloud, which caught everyone else's attention.

"You understand some Japanese, then?" the first voice said in a curious tone, and Euphemia then noticed that the person who had spoken then turn to face the person they had been talking to, "Don't worry about a thing, I'll get this sorted out. I do work here, after all."

"D-demo…" the second person, whom, now that Euphemia's vision was started to come into focus, she could tell was dressed in teal coloured overalls, protested, obviously worried about her.

"Don't worry, I'm sure she'll be fine," the first person said, interrupting the first person with a reassuring tone, "Anyway, you don't want to be late for your next haitatsu. Trust me, I'll look after her."

The second person looked as if he was considering what the first person had told him and after a moment or so, he shrugged.

"Ara, jā ōkē, if you insist," he said with a sigh of defeat, though he still sounded concerned about the pink-haired Princess's safety, "Just as long as she'll be okay."

"You have my word," the first person said with a nod, and the second person turned and walked towards what Euphemia could make out as a somewhat small flatbed truck.

Now that her vision had regained most of its focus, she looked towards the man walking towards the truck. He wore brown laced shoes, teal coloured trousers and a teal coloured jacket with dark navy blue sleeve cuffs and a dark navy blue band at the bottom.

Since his back was to Euphemia, she could not make out much, but she also noted that he also wore a teal coloured cap and had short dark greyish brown hair.

The truck he was walking towards had a teal coloured cab, the same colour as his overalls, with a white stripe running along the bottom of the side displaying red kanji symbols, which Euphemia guessed was displaying the name of the company that the truck belonged to and that the deliveryman was working for. The cab was relatively flat at the front and rounded instead of pointed at the edges. The flatbed at the back was covered with a dark green tarpaulin, held up by metal rods on the inside, or at least that's what Euphemia assumed, at the tarpaulin formed a cuboid shape and was high enough for a person to stand up in, and it was held in place by black rope that formed a triangular zigzag along the sides of the flatbed.

Anyway, the man opened the door and climbed into the cab before starting up the engine, and then, he drove off.

Euphemia then turned towards the other four and noticed a man, whom she guessed was the man that had spoken before watch as the deliveryman drove off. This, from what Euphemia could tell was a middle-aged man with short, slightly messy brown hair that was giving way to grey and greyish brown eyes. He wore black shoes, black trousers with a brown belt with a silver buckle, a greyish brown shirt with rolled-up sleeves that were rolled up to just before his elbows, a left breast pocket that appeared to contain a pack of cigarettes and he also wore a red tie. The collar was also folded outwards and he also had a silver watch around his left wrist.

The girl, who looked to be in her mid-to-late preteens, and who Euphemia guessed must be the man's daughter, had short brown hair that was styled into pigtails, one at either side that curled inwards towards her and held in place by two pink ribbons. She also had big dark brown eyes and wore pink shoes with white bottoms, white socks, and a sleeveless dress that was divided into three different colours with black borderlines running vertically, and underneath her dress, she wore a white sweater, and the collar covered three quarters of her neck and the sleeve cuff ran over the tops of her hands. As for her dress, the top third was light pink, the middle third was darker, more reddish colour of pink and the bottom third was a dark reddish, almost brown shade of pink.

The next person, Euphemia could identify was a teenaged boy with short grey hair, almost in a bowl cut, though the front was slightly messy and grey eyes, the same shade of grey as his hair. He wore black trainers with white-tipped fronts and white running along the sides of the bottoms, dark grey trousers that could easily be mistaken for back, a grey waistcoat with a silver zip at the front, a dark shirt underneath the waistcoat those collar covered three quarters of his neck, which was how Euphemia was able to tell her wore it and a dark navy blue coat.

Euphemia paid most attention to his waistcoat, noticing that it had a high-rise collar that was folded outwards and had two colours running horizontally along it with a thick light greyish blue borderline, with the top colour being a darker shade of greyish blue and the bottom colour being dark green that seemed to have a tint of grey. She also noticed that the waistcoat had sleeves as she could see the sleeve cuffs sticking out from underneath the coat, and they had the same pattern as the collar, though the green was at the top this time and the dark greyish blue was at the bottom, at least from her perspective as he had his arms by his sides. This same pattern was also display running around the bottom of the waistcoat, and like with the sleeve cuffs, the green was at the top, though the borderline was significantly thicker and the bottom was a thin grey outlining.

However, as her gaze fell upon the last person, Euphemia could help but shiver as she felt as if the temperature had suddenly plummeted dramatically. She did not know what it was about this person, but there was something about them that was frighteningly familiar, giving the pink-haired Princess a case of déjà vu, and for some bizarre reason, it unnerved her, and she suddenly found herself climbing to her feet. She could not place the reason why, but for some strange reason, Euphemia felt fearfully uneasy in this person's presence, and she wanted to quickly get as far away from them as possible.

The person in question certainly did not look threatening in any shape or form, and seemed rather confused by her sudden animation and looked to be concerned for her well-being.

"Are you alright, wakai josei?" the person asked in a tone that sounded like genuine concern, and the look of concern even looked genuine.

However, Euphemia found herself backing away from them with a look of panic on her face. Somehow, she did not want this person anywhere near her, and she did not know why. It was rather confusing to her, since she knew for a fact that she had never seen this person before, and yet, she found herself terrified of them for no apparent reason whatsoever. It was almost as if her fear had been instinctual.

"Sā," the person said in a rather cheerful and enticing tone, "I don't bite."

Looking at them, Euphemia still was unable to determine their gender. They looked to be male, but had rather obvious feminine features about them, mainly focussed around their face. Heck, even their voice sounded rather androgynous despite the slight rasp. They had shoulder length grey hair that was almost the same shade as the teenaged boy's with a strand falling down between the eyes, which were a brownish red colour. They wore black shoes, dark grey-almost black trousers, a black leather belt and a multi-coloured jacket that was absent of a nametag. They also wore a red cap with a black visor and a rectangular white sticker above the visor that read the word, "MOEL" in roman letters and two kanji symbols that spelled the word, Sekiyu, the Japanese word for either petroleum or gasoline next to it.

The jacket was at least three different colours with a black interior, which Euphemia could tell since the collar was folded outwards. There was also a black line running down the front that highlighted where the buttons were. At first it seemed as if the jacket was divided in half with the bottom being white and the top being light yellowish orange, but the tops, fronts and back of the shoulders were red along with the sleeves, and on the left breast area was a red rectangle situated above a red shape that appeared to be that of a stereotypical medieval shield drawing and inside this "shield were three yellowish orange leaf shapes positioned diagonally and pointing upwards to the left, though from Euphemia's perspective it was to the right.

"What's wrong?" the middle-aged man suddenly asked, grabbing the pink-haired Princess's attention, "And I'm also curious as to why you were in that dumpster as well."

He then shot her a hard, inquiring, and almost suspicious look, as if he believed that she had been up to no good.

"Huh, well… just where am I?" Euphemia responded, unsure how to handle the man's suspicious gaze.

She then looked herself over and realised that she was still wearing her ceremonial dress that she had been wearing at Shikine-jima.

"Are, just what do you mean?" the man asked her, his gaze intensifying, and Euphemia knew that he was becoming even more suspicious of her, "What exactly are you playing at?"

"You mean, you have no idea where you are?" the teenaged boy said curiously, though, he seemed to have a rather expressionless, stoic look on his face, and once again, Euphemia could not help but feel like she had heard the voice before.

Thinking about it, she realised that the voice sounded a lot like Zero's. Sure, when she had met with Zero at the hotel at Kawaguchi-ko, his voice had been mostly disguised by a voice modulator, but she could clearly make out part of the natural voice, and then her eyes widened in pure shock and horror as a new, even more terrifying scenario came into her mind.

"Oh god, please don't tell me…" she said in a somewhat panicked tone.

What if…? What if instead of being recovered by the Britannian Military, she had, in fact, been abducted by the Black Knights? Yes, that did seem plausible. After all, those people were all Japanese. Suppose this was, in fact, a façade to lull her into a false sense of security, and they believed that she knew of some closely guarded secret that they believed could possibly be of some value to them in future. Maybe she had been the target of the Black Knights' attack after all. However, the thing was, despite being a Princess of the Realm, Euphemia hardly knew of anything that could possibly be of help to anyone, let alone the Black Knights. The teenaged boy's voice sounded a lot like Zero's, but if he was Zero, then that threw her theory that Zero was, in fact, her supposed-to-be-dead half-brother, Lelouch, out the window.

She then started to look around and study her surroundings and was surprised to find that she was in what appeared to be a gas station. The dumpster was next to a building with a red stripe painted along the top, and look out she could see six rectangular pillars holding up the roof along with two sets of gas pumps and a white car parked next to the farthest set. There were also three advertisement banners advertising something in Japanese to the left of the parked car and two more with a different advert at the opposite end of the roof next to two sets of automatic doors that led into the gas station's store.

"Huh?" she said to herself, looking more confused than ever.

"Are, what's wrong, just what's going on here?" the middle-aged man spoke up in a demanding tone, as he glared at the pink-haired Princess, clearly demanding an explanation.

However, Euphemia just ignored him as she ran off towards where she could see a road.

"Oi!" the man called out to her, and started to give chase, but stopped when he noticed a small rectangular card lying on the ground, situated where the pink-haired Princess had been lying, and walked over to it before reaching down and picking it up.

* * *

Euphemia ran out onto the road and looked around and was surprised to find that she was in, what appeared to be a rather peaceful looking rural town. Looking down the road to her left, she saw a row of stores on either side, though some appeared to have been abandoned, while others appeared as if they were still open for business. She also noticed people, Japanese people, going about their daily lives, seemingly oblivious to the Britannian occupation that had befallen their country. To her right was a road with cars driving by and she noticed a bus stop at a corner just opposite the gas station. Looking up, she saw that the side of the gas station roof had yellow outlining painted at the edges and the area between them was painted red aside from an area near the right ends that with a thick yellow slant painted between the outline and next to the slant, also in yellow were the three leaves that she remembered being on the androgynous person's jacket and also the sides had the word "MOEL" and the two kanji symbols next to it in white lettering that spelled the word, Sekiyu, much like what was on the sticker that was on the androgynous person's cap.

"Huh, this isn't…" Euphemia started to say before she trailed off, feeling more confused than ever before.

Was she really kidnapped by the Black Knights? This did not look like one of their bases, and in fact, looked like a normal everyday rural town. Just what was going on? Surely the Black Knights would not be able to pull something like this off, kidnap her, and then, to lull her into a false sense of security, create a fake Japanese style rural town and have its members masquerade as townspeople in order to get information out of her. There was just no way they could possibly be able to pull something of that magnitude off. Even if they did have the resources and the manpower, there was no way they would be able to pull it off unnoticed. The Britannians would have noticed and then come down on them like a ton of bricks.

Of course, the possibility that she was underground and that the sky was fake did occur to her, but she quickly dismissed it, as she could feel a light breeze in the air and she could also smell a variety of smells that one would naturally associate with the great outdoors, and she knew that those particular smells could not be replicated in any way indoors, plus she could also feel that it was rather humid as well, which probably explained why the clouds in the sky looked so threateningly heavy. No, the Black Knights could not have kidnapped her, this was out in the open, plus she doubted that they would recruit children and one of the people she had seen was clearly a child around about six or seven-years-old. Surely Zero would not be immoral enough to go as far as to recruit children to his cause, would he?

Besides, one thing Euphemia did know was that when Britannia invaded a country they were intending to re-establish as an "Area", they were completely indiscriminate and just destroyed everything they could find, including the areas that had no value to them whatsoever, just because they happened to be there. Euphemia remembered one time she asked Cornelia about this, and Cornelia told her that it was necessary. She told her that while the area in question held no value to Britannia whatsoever, it was still necessary to destroy them because terrorists and other would-be rabble would no doubt use them as safe havens and bases, and with the resources of that area still intact, they could prove to be more dangerous than usual.

"Can't argue with that logic, but still…" Euphemia thought, knowing that her sister had a point, but still had misgivings, since to her, Cornelia sounded more like she was looking for any reason she possibly could in order to justify the military's actions than anything else.

Anyway, putting all that to the back of her mind, she had come to the conclusion that she had not been kidnapped by the Black Knights despite the teenaged boy sounding a lot like Zero, but if that was not the case, then just where was she, and more importantly, how did she end up there?

"It's been quite a while since we've hosted a guest outside the country of Japan, and not only that, but a guest whose origins originate in an entirely different world," Igor's voice suddenly echoed in her mind.

Euphemia's eyes widened in shock as she recalled Igor telling her that. She had been curious about that, and had actually demanded that Igor explain what he meant, but, much to her frustration, Igor had dodged the question, and with everything else he had brought up, that little detail had slipped her mind.

"No way!" she thought to herself, as realisation suddenly washed over her, "No way, there's just no way, it's not possible!"

"Nē, are you okay?" the voice of the teenaged boy came, bringing the pink-haired Princess out of her thoughts, as she turned to see him walking towards her.

"Huh, what?" Euphemia said in confusion, unsure how to respond.

"There's no way I can be in another world, there's just no way!" she told herself in her thoughts.

However, unfortunately for her, the evidence pointed to the contrary. Like she had already gone over before, when Britannia had invaded Japan and re-established it as "Area Eleven", they had practically scoured every last inch of the country, destroying every area of habitation they came across and pretty much murdered anyone they happened to find, including unarmed civilians, which included unarmed men, women and children. Even the rural areas that were of little to no value were not spared.

However, upon looking around, Euphemia saw that this place was a typical Japanese rural town with no evidence of Britannian build-ups and the people went about their daily lives completely oblivious to the Britannian Invasion that had occurred seven years previously. All the people that Euphemia could see were clearly Japanese, and they seemed quite happy and content. There was no way that this would be possible in "Area Eleven". Even if by some amazing stroke of luck, the Britannian Military had somehow missed this area, there was no way that it could possibly have gone unnoticed for seven long years. The Britannians would have eventually discovered it and then have sent the military to decimate the place. It was incredibly unlikely that the people would be able to hide from Britannia for seven years straight. As impossible as it sounded, she could not help but realise that this was probably a town in rural Japan, a Japan that was based in some sort of alternate parallel universe, or something along those lines.

She had also wanted, and hoped, to discount the whole thing with Igor, as well as the mysterious poor-quality TV images of the woman being attacked as nothing more than a mysterious dream, and that this was indeed, some elaborate ploy of some kind, but like with the dream involving Unit #031, she found herself remembering every last detail. It was rather frightening and confusing at the same time. It just boggled her mind to know that she was in some sort of alternate world, and she had no idea how she had ended up there.

"Just what's happening to me?" she thought, shaking her head in denial, "Why is this happening to me?"

However, no matter how hard she searched, she just could not come out with an answer. She really wanted to discount everything as one big nightmare, from Unit #031 to that mysterious woman she saw flash before her eyes back on Shikine-jima before ending up in the Velvet Room to the TV programme of that woman being attacked. They all just seemed like random events that could not possibly be related, but Euphemia, despite trying to convince herself otherwise, just knew that they all related to her situation somehow, though, just what a robot girl that was basically a consciousness within a mechanical body being abused be scientists, a mysterious woman, whose features she did not even know, aside from her dark hair and either brown or red eyes, due to how quickly the image had come and gone, a goblin like old man in a limo travelling through thick fog and a woman being attacked by a mysterious bulky man shrouded in silhouette had in common, she did not know. All she knew was that they all related to her situation somehow.

There was also that mysterious voice she heard to consider as well, that had told her about the time being at hand, both in her bedroom in the Tōkyō Settlement's Government Bureau Building immediately after her first dream involving Unit #031 and while she had been racing towards where Suzaku had been restraining Zero, while piloting the Portman. It was obviously related to her situation, but just who did the voice belong to? It most certainly was not Igor's voice she heard. It lacked that Transylvanian edge that Igor spoke with.

"Nē, come on now," the teenaged boy said in a comforting tone, "I can understand that you're obviously a bit frightened, but please try to calm down."

"Huh?" Euphemia said, coming back out of her thoughts, and saw that the boy was staring at her with a look of concern in his eyes despite the rest of his face being expressionless.

"Let's go back with my oji-san and itoko," he went on, as he started walking back to the gas station and ushered Euphemia along with him.

"Huh, your uncle and cousin, eh, yeah, I suppose so," Euphemia said in automatic agreement, knowing that she had nowhere else to go.

She still did not want to believe that she had somehow been transported to another world, but with everything that had happened to her, and having no logical way to explain it, she found that she just had to accept it for the time being, at least till she came across evidence to the contrary. After calming down, she started to recall what else Igor had told her, specifically how she would understand more as time went on, despite not actually phrasing it like that, but basically, that was the meaning he was trying to get across.

"I am unable to answer your questions… or rather, the answers you seek are difficult to put into words," Igor's voice echoed in her mind once again, as if reminding her of what he had said, "However, I can assure you that you will come to understand in time, as you will experience those answers for yourself, and when you do, I promise that you will come to understand."

Now she knew what he had meant. If he had told her that when she left, she would end up in another world, she would have undoubtedly laughed in his face. He knew that it was something she had to experience for herself in order for her to understand. She was somehow in another world. Whatever happened to her at Shikine-jima had transported her here, and she was sure that that mysterious woman that had flashed before her eyes before she had been transported was the one behind it. However, the question was, who was this woman and why had she done it. What did she want from her? Unfortunately, Euphemia did not have those answers and she did not know where to start looking for this woman, since the image had been so brief that she had been unable to make out her features, aside from her dark hair and that she had either brown or red eyes.

"Ā, there you are," the voice of the middle-aged man came, being her back to reality, and she realised that they had already returned to the gas station, and the man's earlier suspicions about her seemed to have dissipated, at least for the time being, "Your name is Euphemia li Britannia, is that correct?"

"What?" Euphemia said aloud, as her eyes widened in shock, and briefly, but also a bit hopefully, she wondered if perhaps she had initially been mistaken, "H-how d-d-do you know m-my name?"

"It says so on your gaitōshō, an abbreviation of gaikokujin tōroku shōmeisho," the man said, holding out a small rectangular card towards Euphemia, clearly intending for her to take it, "That means an alien registration card in your language."

"Huh, alien registration… what…?" Euphemia said, as she took the card from the man and looked at it and was surprised to see her own picture staring back at her, and next to the picture were a list of personal details about her, including her name, date of birth, though she was surprised to see that in the nationality box that she was listed as American, and that her place of birth was listed as Phoenix, Arizona.

It also stated that she was to be a student attending Yasogami Kōtōgakkō or Yasogami High School, and that she was going to be staying with a Dōjima Ryōtarō, his daughter, Nanako and his nephew, Narukami Yū.

"No… what is this?" the pink-haired Princess said in complete disbelief, "This can't be right!"

"I'm afraid it is," the middle-aged man said, interrupting Euphemia before she could retreat into her thoughts, "And it's really a coincidence because I just so happen to be Dōjima Ryōtarō."

"Huh?" Euphemia said, for perhaps the umpteenth time since she arrived, clearly confused, unable to explain why this was happening to her.

Just what was that card and how did it come into being? She was no fool. It was probably something that all foreigners in this world's version of Japan were required to carry around with them, but in order to get one, she knew that they would have to be applied for, and yet, she had not applied for one. How could she? She only just arrived, and another thing that caught her was the word, American.

America was where Britannia was based. After the loss of their original homeland, the Britannians had sailed over to America and sought to re-establish themselves, which had been difficult, since the failure of George Washington's rebellion to establish the United State of America had still been relatively fresh in the colonists' minds, and they had undoubtedly sought revenge against the Britannians for that particular defeat. That was probably how modern-day Britannia came to establish itself, Euphemia guessed. The Britannians were a relatively small group back then surrounded, and outnumbered by angry and hostile colonists, who were probably hell-bent on taking their revenge for Washington's defeat, and so, the Britannians had adopted a ruthless mind set in order to survive, but unfortunately even after they managed to re-establish themselves and build up their power, that mind set never left them, and they were still living believing that they had to oppress and subjugate others because if they did not, then they would suffer the very same fate as those they conquered.

"Does this mean that in this world Washington's Rebellion was a success?" she asked herself, bringing herself back to the topic at hand.

"Are, nē, what is this?" the voice of the boy, whom Euphemia guessed must be Narukami Yū, came, and Euphemia saw that he was studying the alien registration card, "According to this, you're staying with us."

Both Yū and the girl, whom Euphemia knew must be Nanako but turned to look at Dōjima with confused looks on their faces, clearly looking for answers.

"There seriously must be some mistake here," Euphemia said, as she tried to explain, "This is all wrong. I'm not a student, and I definitely don't know any of you."

"Well, y-you see, about that," Dōjima said to his daughter and nephew nervously with a chuckle, while scratching the back of his head, "I was so overworked that I forgot that I was hosting both you and a ryūgakusei at the same time. I guess that it just slipped my mind."

Euphemia's eyes widened and she saw Yū raise an eyebrow, and Nanako just gave her father a confused look.

"I shouldn't have done that, I'll admit, but I was so swamped with work that I agreed to take my oi and a ryūgakusei in at the same time," Dōjima continued to explain, practically repeating himself.

"So, I'm an overseas student, then?" Euphemia said, and then gave Dōjima a rather sincere look and looked him in the eye, "Look, Dōjima-san… I can call you that can't I?"

"Of course," Dōjima said with a nod.

"Look, I honestly have no idea what's going on here," the pink-haired Princess went on, though she knew that if she told her story that she was from another world, they would not believe her and most likely laugh at her, "I don't remember ever applying for an alien registration thingy or that I'm on some overseas student thingy, and I also don't know how I ended up in that dumpster. There has to be some mistake. I don't remember ever meeting you before."

"Sokka," Dōjima said with a nod, as he shot the pink-haired Princess an inquiring look, and looked as if he was pondering something, "Well, I can honestly say that there's no mistake. I have confirmation that I'm providing for a girl by the name of Euphemia li Britannia, and though you're right in the sense that we've never spoken before, all the arrangements were done through third parties."

"Who?" Euphemia asked curiously, and both Yū and Nanako also looked on, obviously curious as well, and Euphemia then knew that they were pretty much as in the dark about all this as she was.

"I don't remember hearing you talking about this with anyone," Nanako said, speaking for the first time, and this was the first time that Euphemia could make out what she was saying, and her comment also made Euphemia even more confused.

"That's because it was after you had gone to bed," Dōjima replied, turning his head to look down at his daughter, "I took care of all this after your bedtime; you know I stay up long after you've gone to bed."

"Well… I guess that's true," Nanako said, as she thought it over, though, she was still somewhat reluctant to accept her father's explanation.

"As for who… well, the funny thing is, I don't remember…" Dōjima went on, turning back to face Euphemia and Yū, as he answered Euphemia's question.

"What do you mean you don't remember?" Euphemia asked with a hint of frustration in her voice, as she started to glare at the middle-aged man, "Surely you must recall just exactly who you were speaking to."

"Well, I honestly don't remember," Dōjima said, shooting Euphemia a stern look, which told her that the discussion on that particular issue was over, "Anyway, I have to say that it's surprising to find you in a dumpster, and you say you don't know how you got there."

"Yeah or hai, as you Japanese say," Euphemia said with a nod, "The last thing I remember was… the last thing I remember was that I was rushing to save a friend of mine and then I must've passed out."

That was technically true, she told herself. She figured that she could reveal that much, since it did not imply that she was from another world. She reckoned that she could tell some of the truth without being taken for a crackpot.

"Sokka," Dōjima said, as he looked Euphemia up and down, choosing to ignore her brief pause, since he could see that she was having problems remembering how she ended up there, and noticed how expensive her dress looked, "Well, if I had to hazard a guess, my first instinct would be, on account of your dress, that you must've been at a party of some kind and had been drugged and discarded once whomever drugged you was finished with you."

"You mean; she could've been raped?" Yū said in pure shock, as he turned to look at Euphemia with a look of panic visible on his face.

"No, I wasn't raped," Euphemia replied with a hint of annoyance in her tone at that suggestion, "I think I'd know if I had been. I'm serious, the last thing I remember was trying to rescue my friend before passing out!"

"Well, perhaps your memory's not all there at the moment," Dōjima suggested, clearly offering an explanation to explain it, "In any case, according to your gaitōshō, you're staying with us, so I guess you'll be coming with us."

"Huh, oh, I guess so," Euphemia said with a sigh of defeat, having resided herself to her current situation.

It was not like she had any game plan or anything. She seriously had not considered just where she would go in this strange new world, and with that in mind, she decided that she might as well play along and go with Dōjima and his family. It was not like she had anywhere else to go.

However, she found it weird that Dōjima had apparently known she was coming, and that she was supposedly an overseas student attending a Japanese High School, probably as part of a foreign exchange program. She knew that that was not true. She was not native to this world, so there was no way that she could really be a foreign exchange student, and yet, there was an alien registration card with her name and personal details on it. Just where had that come from? She did not remember having it before, and another thing that boggled her mind, was that it also displayed her picture, a picture that she did not recall being taken in the past.

"This is all just too confusing," she thought to herself, and she turned to see Yū staring at her with a rather expressionless and stoic look on his face, though, looking into his eyes, Euphemia could see that he was studying her and silently inquiring about her.

"Anyway, now that that's all out of the way, some introductions are in order," Dōjima went on, bringing both Euphemia and Yū out of their thoughts, as they turned to look at him, "As you already know, I am Dōjima Ryōtarō."

"N-nice to meet you," Euphemia said with a polite bow, unsure exactly what to do next.

"And this here is my musume, Nanako," Dōjima went on, as he looked down at his daughter and gently pushed her forwards toward the pink-haired Princess.

However, Nanako just looked up at the pink-haired girl unsure how to react, and she looked a bit timid and frightened.

"Ano… konnichiwa…?" Euphemia said, speaking Japanese with a nervous chuckle, scratching the back of her head, as she was unsure how to go about the situation.

The little girl was clearly wary of her and Euphemia could honestly say that she did not blame her. After all, apparently, if what she had gathered so far was accurate, both she and her father had gone to pick her cousin up at a train station, and now, as it turned out, thanks to an obviously non-existent mix up of some kind, they were also playing host to her, a complete stranger. Nanako had every right to be wary. She did not know her and probably had objections to her staying with them, especially considering that she had apparently been unaware of her father's supposed intentions about hosting her.

"Mm-hmm… 'nichiwa," Nanako managed to blurt out in a rather quiet tone before she darted behind her father's leg and peered out from the side looking rather shy and nervous.

"Come on now, Nanako, there's no need to be shy," Dōjima said with a friendly chuckle, though it was clearly obvious to the pink-haired Princess that he was pleading to his daughter, trying to get her to open up to her, "I'm sure that she doesn't bite."

"I can't say I blame her for being wary," Euphemia said with an understanding sigh, "I am a takokumono, a stranger to her, and a gaijin at that. She's very wise."

"It's gaikokujin," Yū said, causing Euphemia to turn and stare at him, "You are technically right, but gaijin comes across as being rather offensive and derogatory, so we use the correct term, gaikokujin in relation to foreigners."

"Yeah, but I'm sure your itoko doesn't want me around the house," Euphemia said as she turned to look at Nanako, who ducked back behind her father's leg upon noticing that Euphemia was staring at her, causing her to sigh, "I mean, how would you feel if your parents suddenly told you out of the blue, and with no advanced warning whatsoever, that they were going to have a complete stranger come and stay with them, and you had no say in it?"

"Don't worry, she hasn't exactly warmed up to me either," Yū said in a reassuring tone, indicating that he was practically on the same boat as her and then turned to face her, "I'm Narukami Yū, by the way."

"Oh, I'm Euphemia li Britannia," Euphemia said, as she turned to face Yū to see that he had his hand extended towards her, and she took hers in his, and they shook hands.

"Well, anyway, I know this is rather bad timing, after all, I promised aneki that I would look after her musuko while she and her otto are overseas on business," Dōjima explained as he addressed both Euphemia and Yū, letting them both know that he was speaking to them both, "As I said before, I was so swamped with work that I unwittingly decided to take you, Euphemia, in as a ryūgakusei at the same time."

"So, your parents, or ryōshin are working overseas, and you're staying with your oji and itoko for the duration of their stay?" Euphemia said, as she summed everything that Dōjima said up, "I mean your mother's his big sister and otto means husband, is that right?"

"Un, that's correct," Yū said simply with a nod, "My ryōshin are both working abroad overseas, somewhere in the United States of America, I think, though I'm not too sure where exactly. It's always like this for me. I practically move from place to place every year."

"Hai, well I'm his haha's otōto, and that about sums it up," Dōjima said with a nod, "I agreed to look after him, so you'll be sharing the house with him, I'm afraid, and Yū, likewise, you'll be sharing the house with her, I hope neither of you mind."

"No, not at all," Yū said, shaking his head, though Euphemia could not help but wonder if he was being truthful, or if he was only agreeing with Dōjima because it was expected of him.

In the short amount of time that she had known him, she already knew enough about him to know that he was a very hard person to read, since the only hint of emotion he showed was the shock and horror he displayed when he thought that she could have possibly been raped. Other than that his face remained expressionless and devoid of any emotion, making it difficult to tell what he was thinking, plus his voice reminded her of Zero.

"No I don't mind either," she said, speaking up once she came out of her thoughts, "It can't be helped I suppose."

"Once again, sorry about this," Dōjima apologised yet again, "Though I suppose in a way, this could be a blessing in disguise. After all, if you hadn't ended up in that dumpster, who knows how long it would've been till I remembered about you, and you could have been waiting at who knows where waiting for me to pick you up."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Euphemia said with a nod, as she decided to reside herself to her fate for the time being, "Especially considering how it looks as if it's going to rain rather heavily any second."

"All's well that ends well, eh?" a familiar voice came with a friendly chuckle, grabbing everyone else's attention, causing them to turn, and they saw the androgynous person walking towards them.

Euphemia suddenly felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end as she realised that she had forgotten that they were there, and her fears and unease around this person returned with a vengeance, as she felt herself back away from them. Looking around, Euphemia was a bit surprised to see that she was not the only one who was unnerved by this person's presence, as Nanako, upon seeing that this person was walking up behind her had ran around her father, who had turned to face the person and hid behind his leg again, only this time, she was hiding from the androgynous person standing in front of them and not her.

In fact, upon studying Nanako further, Euphemia could see that she was downright terrified of this person, as she clung to her father's leg as if she was afraid that he would disappear at any given moment. When it came to her, Euphemia could see that Nanako, though shy, timid and somewhat afraid, she was not absolutely terrified of her. By contrast, Nanako looked at the androgynous person as if they were some sort of frightening monster from a storybook taking on a human form. If the pink-haired Princess had to hazard a guess, if the little girl had to choose between her and the androgynous person, then she would choose her over the androgynous person any day of the week.

"So it's not just me," she thought to herself.

"Chotto ima, why so scared," the person said with a rather awkward chuckle, "I don't bite. I'm just your average jūgyōin here at this gas station."

"S-s-s-so you're a-a-an at-at-attendant, then?" Euphemia practically stuttered nervously, as she tried to work up the courage to suppress her fear of this person.

She could not put her finger on it, but something about this attendant just did not sit well with her. Something about them just scared her, making her feel ill at ease and she found herself putting her guard up in case they tried anything.

"Un, and I couldn't help but overhear your conversation," the attendant said in a seemingly friendly tone, "So your name is Euphemia, I gather?"

"Un, hai!" Euphemia said with a quick nod.

"Now go away and leave me alone," she added in her thoughts.

"Well, Euphemia-san, in case you're wondering where you are, let me be the first to say, "Welcome to Inaba"," the attendant went on in their friendly tone, seemingly unaware of the pink-haired Princess's unease, "Inaba's the name of this here machi, that means town in Japanese, though, to be honest with you, it's rather dull and boring out here. I'm sure it's not like what you're used to back where you come from. Like I told this guy here, you'll probably end up being bored to tears if you don't have a job or something."

"Huh, well, I overheard you mentioning that part-time job, but I don't think I'm all that interested," the pink-haired Princess said, managing to suppress at least some of her fear.

"Besides, I don't want you anywhere near me," she added in her thoughts, as she felt herself involuntarily tremble like she was shivering from being in a cold area too long.

Just looking at this person somehow gave her the impression that she was staring at the Grim Reaper and that he was coming for her, and it brought her back to her discussion with Igor in which he informed her that she may die.

"No, no, no, don't think like that!" she scolded herself, not wanting to think of that possibility.

"Look, if there's a problem in getting a job, then get in touch with the Chihō Nyūkoku Kanrikyoku," the attendant went on, seemingly oblivious to Euphemia's growing discomfort, "I'm sure they'll get it sorted out for you. I mean, you are staying for more than six months, aren't you?"

"The Local Immigration Bureau," Euphemia said, translating the Japanese words, just to be sure that she heard them properly.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Dōjima said with a dismissive laugh, "I've already dealt with that stuff, and believe me, she is allowed to partake in part-time work."

He then paused and turned to face Euphemia.

"Like he said, you'll get bored fast if you don't have something to occupy yourself with, so a part-time job or two will do you the world of good," he went on, as he placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, and also appeared to be oblivious to the pink-haired girl's discomfort around the attendant, "I suppose you could do without, but it's so dull and boring out here that you'll be setting yourself up for major boredom in that case."

"He?" Euphemia thought, as she glanced over at the attendant, "You think that they're a man. I honestly can't tell."

"Look, just think it over, will you?" the attendant said in what seemed like a reassuring tone, as they held out their hand towards Euphemia, "I'm sure that my koyōsha, that is my employer, won't mind that you're a gaikokujin."

Euphemia just stared at the hand being offered to her for a brief moment, considering whether or not she should accept it. She was rather tempted to just slap the hand away and make a run for it. She just did not want this person anywhere near her or to touch her in any way, even if it was just a seemingly friendly handshake. She had a terrifyingly sinking feeling that she would probably come to regret the handshake if she accepted, but on the other hand, she knew that politeness was a major part of Japanese society and that she may give off the wrong idea to Dōjima and his family if she rejected the handshake, and so, against her better judgement, she reluctantly accepted the handshake and reached out her own hand to meet with the attendant's.

They both shook hands, though, Euphemia almost panicked when she felt the firm grip of the attendant's hand wrap around her own. The attendant's grip was a bit too firm for her liking and she felt like wincing in pain, but almost as quickly as they had taken her hand, they released it, and Euphemia could not help but back away with the colour having drained from her face, looking as if she had seen a ghost.

"Well, back to work for me, for real this time," the attendant said, as they turned and started to walk away, but stopped and looked back at Euphemia and Yū, "I wouldn't want to be accused of slacking off, would I?"

With that said, they turned their head back to facing their front and continued to walk off.

"What was… what was that about…?" Euphemia said trembling with fear, though, she was unsure why.

Something about the way the attendant had grabbed her hand had caused her to panic. It seemed like a regular friendly handshake, but something about it had set off alarm bells in her head.

"Now I just know that I'm going to regret this," she thought to herself, as she struggled to regain her composure.

"Are, what's wrong?" Yū asked feeling a bit concerned after seeing her fearful expression.

"Don't worry, I find that guy weird as well," Nanako said, as she looked up at the pink-haired Princess, reassuring her that she was not alone in her uneasiness around the attendant.

"Anyway, let's get going," Dōjima said, as he turned to walk towards the car, "We've been here long enough."

The others all nodded and started to follow him, but as soon as Euphemia took her first step, a brief flash of white light flashed before her eyes, briefly obscuring her vision and she also heard what sounding like a cross between a bell and a ping sound, and then, she felt a sharp pain flare up in her head, causing her to feel dizzy yet again, though this time was on a far more intense level than before, and she felt herself stumble and almost dive head-first into the tarmac, but she fortunately managed to catch herself. Once she recovered, she was confused to find that the pain that had shot up in her head was now gone… or at the very least, mostly gone, the worst of it having disappeared as quickly as it had come and her dizziness seemed to have also passed.

"Are, Euphemia-san, are you okay?" she heard Nanako asking her, and looked down to see the little girl looking at her with a look of concern and worry, "Are you sick? You don't look so good."

Yū was also looking at her with concern in his eyes, though, he also seemed to be pondering something.

"What's wrong?" Dōjima asked, having noticed Euphemia was feeling a bit off, "You're not falling ill or anything, are you?"

"No, it's okay, it passed." Euphemia said, offering Dōjima what she hoped was a reasonable explanation, "I'm probably still a bit disorientated from lying in that dumpster."

Dōjima looked unconvinced for a second, but then, he shrugged and continued to walk towards the car. Once he got in the driver's seat, Nanako allowed Euphemia to come up alongside her, and then she turned towards the pink-haired Princess and took a few small sniffs at Euphemia's side.

"No offence, Euphemia-san, but you smell," she said simply, causing Euphemia to groan in annoyance.

"Dōjima-san, when we get back to your house, is it okay if I use your shower?" she called after the middle-aged man as Nanako walked towards the passenger's side of the front and got in.

Both Euphemia and Yū got in the back, and Yū also took a sniff at Euphemia and then waved his hand in front of his nose.

"Nanako's right,, you really do stink," he said in the most stoic tone Euphemia had ever heard, and she had to admit that she was rather tempted to just turn and smack him over the head, despite the fact that what he said was indeed, true.

Euphemia took a sniff at herself and clamped her thumb and index fingers down on her nose, realising that they were right. She did indeed, smell awful. She reckoned that it must have been because she had been lying in that dumpster.

"Mochiron, feel free to use the shower or the ofuro whenever you wish," Dōjima said after everyone had closed the doors.

He then started up the engine and put the car into reverse before he slowly drove the car backwards, making sure that no one was in his way as he backed. He also turned the car at a ninety-degree angle before putting the car into first gear and then slowly drove forwards to the intersection that led into the gas station, and then upon making sure that no cars were coming, he turned the car left and drove down the shopping district.

* * *

As Dōjima drove off, the gas station attendant walked out from the store and watched the car drive off with a rather content and rather sinister smile on their face.

"I have to say that I'm a bit surprised that she was more in tune with the vibes that I was giving off than I had originally anticipated," they said to themselves curiously, clearly surprised that, while not realising that their real identity, Euphemia did seem to pick up on the fact that they were not who they appeared to be.

Looking up to their right, they noticed a small bluish white butterfly that appeared to give of a phosphorescent glow hovering nearby. The butterfly was not moving and appeared to be stationary as it flapped its wings and small glowing particles of light appeared to fall from its behind, but vanished before touching the ground.

"Philemon," the attendant said with a somewhat friendly, though smug chuckle, "So you've also developed an interest in Euphemia as well, have you?"

The butterfly did not reply, but moved slightly, as if acknowledging that it had heard them.

"Feel free to observe all you want," the attendant went on, not caring whether they got a reply or not, "It makes no difference to me what you do. The rules you set yourself prevent you from interfering directly. Euphemia's fate has already been sealed regardless of the outcome."

"We shall see," a voice echoed in the attendant's mind, though, this did not alarm them, and in fact, they just responded with a shrug.

"Yes, we most certainly shall," the attendant replied with a sinister sounding chuckle.

They then turned to look out across the road and was shocked to see a girl standing just outside the gas station on the pavement, and from the looks of it, it was quite clear to the attendant that they girl had heard what they had said.

The girl had dark reddish brown hair that was tied into a ponytail that went down to the back of her stomach and held in place by a dark red bobble and she also had dark chocolate brown eyes. She wore a pair of red and white sneakers, a pair of dark brown socks that went up to just below her knees, a dark reddish brown skirt that went down to just above her knees, a red t-shirt that had a depiction of Tōkyō Tower and a light brownish orange coloured sleeveless and unbuttoned waistcoat. She was also holding a black bag in her right hand with white kanji symbols that read, "Konishi Sakaya" on the side and was surrounded by a white circle.

The attendant just sighed in annoyance and then focused their gaze on the girl.

From the girl's perspective, the attendant seemed to gaze straight at her and locked eyes with her. She did not know why, though. Sure she heard them talking to themselves, but she passed it off as the attendant not being right in the head and suffering from some mental illness such as schizophrenia. She was just curious about them. However, her eyes widened in shock as she witnessed that the brownness in their eyes appeared to vanish and all that was left was a pair of crimson red eyes glaring right at her. Before she could even react, the attendant's eyes widened, and then, they appeared to flash a bright red.

* * *

**Author's Notes** – Finally, another chapter done. You know, a great thing about the length of time it took was that it gave me time to watch Persona 4 Dancing All Night and familiarise myself with it. I have to say though, that the scenes involving Euphemia took longer than I imagined, and I had a few extra scenes involving various members of the Investigation Team lined up because I believed that this chapter would not be as long as it was. However, now that I thought up of those scenes, I desperately want them in, so they'll be next chapter as a brief interlude (though given the possible length, it may as well be a regular chapter).


	4. Seemingly Unrelated People

**Euphemia of the Personas**

**Seemingly Unrelated People**

**Disclaimer** – I do not own either Code Geass or the Shin Megami Tensei Persona franchise. Code Geass is the property of Sunrise, Gorō Taniguchi and Ichirō Ōkouchi and the Shin Megami Tensei Persona franchise is the property of Atlus.

* * *

Kazebana Reiko blinked as her world briefly seemed to flash red for just a brief moment, and afterwards, she found herself feeling somewhat confused as she momentarily forgot where she was and what she was doing. The sound of glass smashing next to her on the ground quickly brought her back to reality, and she saw an attendant of the Moel Gas Station making their way towards the store, as she found herself standing in front of the Moel Gas Station at the end of the southern portion of Inaba's Central Shopping District.

"Sō sō," Reiko said to herself as she remembered what she was doing beforehand, and then looked down at her right to discover that, in her momentary lapse of concentration, she had dropped the bag she had been carrying, which contained a bottle of sake from the Konishi Liquor Store that her mother had sent her to buy for her.

Realising that the smashed glass must have come from the bottle as she dropped the bag, she groaned rather unhappily with a shudder, as she knew that her mother would not take too kindly to the fact that the bottle containing her sake had been smashed. Of course, Reiko knew that she could just turn around and go back to the liquor store and purchase another bottle, but unfortunately, she knew that her mother had given her a set time to be back home by, and if she was not home by that time, then harsh punishment would most certainly follow, and Reiko knew she would be punished even if she was just a single second late in arriving home, so she usually made an effort to get home as early as possible before the assigned time.

Shuddering at the thought of facing one of her mother's harsh punishments she also brought her right hand over her left shoulder, feeling the phantom sensation of the pain that her mother had inflicted the last time she had punished her. Reiko knew that her mother did not really like her, not since her birth had practically ruined her mother's promising art career, since Reiko had been born out of wedlock after her mother, Kazebana Ritsuko, had gotten drunk one night and had a one-night stand with a man she remembered her mother naming him as Mikimi Kankurō, since Reiko had never met him herself, and afterwards, her reputation as a promising well-respected artist had gone down the tubes. However, since Kankurō had disappeared, Ritsuko could not take it out on him, but upon discovering that she was pregnant, she had decided to take all her frustration out on her daughter; at least, that's how Reiko saw it.

Another reason she was hesitant to go back was because the owner of the Liquor Store, Konishi Keiji had arrived just as she was leaving, after being served by his wife, Sayuko, and he had made it quite clear that he disapproved of her, though, she knew was that what he really disapproved of was the fact that his daughter, Saki, was friends with her.

Konishi Saki was her best friend… in fact, she was, perhaps, her only friend, and though she did not know the full story, she knew that Saki had extreme issues with her father that went back to, even long before she had taken a part-time job at the newly opened Junes Department Story six months previously, which was why many of the stores in the Shopping Distract were closing down. She remembered that Saki had confessed to her that she hated her father with a burning passion and that she only took the part-time job just to spite him, and give him a reason to declare his hatred towards her openly, and also she was saving up enough money so that she could go and live on her own away from her father.

Speaking of Saki, turning to look to her right, she could see Saki and her younger brother, Naoki further down the road, and both arguing, and though Reiko could not tell just what it was they were arguing about, she had to guess that Naoki was not too pleased that Saki had eaten his cream puffs again. It was a habit of Naoki's, that he would put creams puffs in the refrigerator and then forget about them, and then Saki would discover them and eat them since, usually by the time Naoki remembered about them, they would have been by the expiration date. Whether Naoki accepted that excuse from his sister or not, she did not know, though, given their argument, she could guess that the answer was, "no", he did not.

Normally, seeing Saki, she would have asked her to hang out, but unfortunately, not only was Saki preoccupied with calming her brother down, Reiko knew that she was on a strict timetable, and that her mother would undoubtedly deal a severely harsh punishment if she was even just a single second late in returning home.

"I swear, sometimes I wonder if she intentionally wants me to be late just so she can have an excuse to beat me up," she mused to herself with a sigh, as she winced even at the thought of her mother inflicting pain on her.

That definitely would not be surprising, considering how her mother clearly hated her and seemed to take great pleasure in making her suffer.

She wrapped her arms around herself even as she imagined her mother inflicting pain on her, whether it was with a whip, her fists, a baseball bat or some other improvised weapon. It mattered not. Ritsuko seemed determined to make her daughter's life as miserable as possible, though, she stopped short of killing her, reasoning that, besides the obvious reasons like dealing with the police and possibly fighting off murder charges, she reasoned that, that if her daughter were to die, then she would have no one to take her anger and frustrations out on.

Turning to look across the street, as she struggled to regain her composure, she noticed someone turning the corner from the bus stop, making their way down the Shopping District.

The boy in question had short bleach-blonde hair, indicating that he had obviously dyed it, grey eyes and a look of pure annoyance adorning his face He also had had three ringed silver piercings circling the left helix of his ear, one near the lobe, one in the middle, and the last one near the top. His right ear had one ringed piercing looped around the helix and a rectangular piercing that looked more like a piece of metal attached to his ear from just after the lobe to the halfway point between where the lobe ended and where his ringed piercing was situated. He also had a small piercing on the left side of his nose. He also had a small series of scars just above his left eye, one going diagonally downward from right to left and two smaller scars crisscrossing

He wore brown slip-on shoes with black bottoms and silver bolted studs that rand over their front, black trousers with a series of white dots and lines that looked to form a shape of some kind that Reiko could not identity, as well as two back pockets, one situated at each butt cheek. He also had a black belt around his waist with small metal square studs running around it in two rows and a gap every so often. The belt also had a black ovular belt buckle with a silver outline and a silver skull decoration in the centre. One his upper torso, Reiko could just make out a yellow sweater underneath a black leather jacket with silver ringlets running along the bottom. The front had a rectangular outline at the centre where the zip was. The jacket also had two waist pockets at either side, a left breast pocket, two vertical zips that ran to the halfway point between the wrists and elbows, one of the end of either sleeve and a brown fold-back collar at the sides and back. However, on the back of the jacket was what looked like the top of a skull with hair and a moustache. Three appendixes protruded from the skull like hair whereas two more protruded at the bottom in diagonal downward angles imitating a moustache. In the centre beneath the skull top was a small white dot shaped a bit like an upside down kite imitating a nose. Beneath the skull white two bones situated on opposite side tilted so that they were leaning inwards towards one another with their tops then protruding outwards, though, if one were to study the tops of the bones, they sort of looked like the letter J tilted slightly. Running from the bottom hair protrusions were lines that curved around beneath the skull, breaking only when they encountered the bones before going on to meet in the centre forming a sort-of circle. Above the circle, but between the two bones was the letter U with a downward curved line at either side. Beneath the circle was yet another downward curved line running from the outer ends of the lines on either side of the letter U inside the circle, and beneath that was a smaller upward curved line. The entire decoration was white and looked like the sort of thing one would associate with biker gangs. The boy also had a black leather bracelet around his left wrist with small silver spikes protruding from it every ninety-degrees, though they were not big enough to cause any serious harm, unless they hit the eyes, but to Reiko, the chances of that seemed slim. She also noticed that he had a rather thin black metal necklace around his neck that looked a bit like a loose choker.

Noticing that someone was watching him caused the boy to stop, which caused Reiko to flinch and subconsciously take a small step backwards, as he turned to shoot the girl a rather furiously hostile glare.

"Oi, 'the hell you lookin' at!" the boy practically shouted in a scathingly demanding tone, as his eyes narrowed on the now-trembling girl, and he seriously looked as if he was considering on whether or not to give her a thrashing, "Ya think I won't beat ya up just cause yer a girl?"

"A, a, a, ano, sumimasen, Tatsumi-san," Reiko apologised fearfully, trembling under the boy, Tatsumi's furiously threatening gaze, as she took a few more steps back, as she believed that he really was going to hurt her, "I wasn't looking for any trouble, shōjikina."

"Tch, nanideare," Tatsumi said dismissively, and after thinking it over for a moment, he gave Reiko a rather rude sneer before storming off down the street, obviously deciding that she was not worth the effort.

"Yareyare, that was close," Reiko said to herself, as she struggled to stop herself from trembling.

Even though she was not very well acquainted with the boy that had just threatened her, she did know him by reputation, and unfortunately, his reputation was not a very good one. Tatsumi Kanji was his name, and he always seemed to be in a state of perpetual fury, always getting into fights at even the slightest provocations, like just happening to be glancing in his general direction as Reiko just experienced, ever since he was in middle school, at least that was what she had heard, and unfortunately, it had led to some rather unsavoury rumours floating around about him. Whether or not those rumours had any substance to them or not, Reiko did not know, and she did not particularly care either, since she tended to avoid Kanji whenever she could. However, she had seen him around a couple of times and based on what she had seen, she would not be surprised if those rumours did in fact turn out to be true.

Some of the rumours floating around about Kanji were that he had become a member of a local biker gang, and though each time Reiko remembered seeing him in the past, he had been alone, which appeared to disprove those rumours, but from the way he was nearly always dressed, she would not be surprised if it turned out that he was part of a gang. She could not help but feel sorry for his mother, whom she knew was a widow who owned the local textile store in the Shopping Distract, and like the Konishi Liquor Store, it was one of the few stores still open for business. She could not imagine what poor Mrs. Tatsumi must be going through because of her son, especially considering that he may be part of a gang.

"Nanideare, it's not my problem," she said to herself with a shrug, "It's not like I'm wanting to be his tomodachi or anything."

She knew that Kanji was due to start attending Yasogami High tomorrow, though she doubted that he would show up all that much, since he also seemed to have a habit of constantly playing truant, in other words, he did not bother showing up for school. Not that she cared or anything, just so long as he left her alone, that was all that mattered. However, one thing she did take note off whenever she did see Kanji about was that he seemed to have a particular hatred of girls. She did not know why, but observing him, he seemed to be a bit more tolerant towards boys than girls, though, she had never actually seen him attack or fight with girls, whenever he glared at them, like he did with her, the glare, itself, seemed a bit more ferocious than it was whenever he glared at boys, and it was like he wanted to rip their heads off, though as far as she knew, he never actually followed through on any of those unsaid threats.

"Kuso," she suddenly heard someone cuss, followed by the sound of squeaking, the sort of squeaking an old bike that had not been well oiled would make.

Turning back to face the direction from where she had passed Saki and Naoki arguing to see another boy riding a yellow bicycle with the word "ATLUS" in black lettering on the side of the down tube.

Looking towards Saki and Naoki, she saw that they had stopped arguing with Naoki glaring after the boy on the bike as he continued to pedal by whereas Saki gave her brother a scolding look. However, knowing exactly who the boy on the bike was, she could not help but follow Naoki's example, as she too, glared after him.

The boy in question had short light brown hair that was a bit messy neat the bottom of the sides and back and he also had dark brown eyes. He wore dark brown laced boots that went up to a quarter of the way between his ankles and knew, dark green trousers with thick dark brown outlines highlighting the pockets at the sides near the top that came around to the front and two pack pockets that were highlighted by a light pinkish brown colour, a dark brown belt around his waist with a silver buckle, an orange t-shirt with a yellow outline highlighting the collar and a white jacket with brown fur at the end of the hood. The jacket, which was unzipped also had a thin navy blue line running around the bottom in the centre of the trim area with two vertical line on either side of the jacket acting as a cut-off point before the horizontal line reached the end. There were also two thick navy blue lines that formed arches underneath the boy's armpits, and on the sides of the shoulders, with white outline were two, one for each side dark greenish blue semi-rectangles with the top shaped more like a triangle and inside were two orange wing shapes. He also had a set of black headphones around his neck, which were red at the backs of the ear paddings.

"Hanamura Yōsuke," Reiko groaned in dissatisfaction as she glared after the boy.

This was definitely a boy that, she had to say, she did not like in the very least. He was the son of the Junes Department Store's Manager, who had just transferred to Inaba six months ago when the department store first opened, but that was not why she disliked him. In truth, she really did not care much for the conflict between Junes and the Shopping District, since in her view, shops were shops no matter where they were situated or how much they charged. No, what she disliked about Yōsuke the most was his attitude towards girls, Saki in particular.

In her view, when it came to girls in particular, Yōsuke tended to overrate his chances with them and act as if he was the world's most popular ladies' man, and no matter how often the girls he attempted to flirt with turned him down, he just did not seem to get the hint, and in Reiko's opinion, he was just so full of himself. His interest in Saki in particular really bothered her. She did not know why, but something about his interest in Saki just rubbed her the wrong way. Even though Saki did not admit it, not even to herself, Reiko knew that she also did not like Yōsuke very much, though she was just too nice to admit it to Yōsuke's face, or perhaps, even to herself. The only reason, at least in Reiko's mind, that Saki put up with Yōsuke and was nice to him was because he was the Manager's son. Unfortunately, Yōsuke seemed to completely misinterpret Saki's kindness and took her intentions the wrong way, and he had ended up deluded himself into believing that he was officially Saki's boyfriend.

However, whereas Saki was too nice to clear up the misunderstanding, Reiko had no qualms about letting him know how she felt, and because she openly displayed her dislike for him, Yōsuke, in turn, did not like her all that much either, and in fact whether they met, usually whenever Saki was present, they would constantly bicker and insult one another. She hated it especially when Yōsuke would address her as "Rei-chan", since the kanji symbols for her name read as "Zero Child", which her mother had given to her because she believed that she would never amount to anything due to her being born out of wedlock, which was still a big deal in Japan, and Ritsuko seemed to be determined on drilling that notion into her mind. However, the way they fought and how Saki seemed to get caught in the middle, some people, and even Yōsuke himself, joked that they were fighting over Saki's affections. In fact, Reiko often wondered if perhaps Yōsuke genuinely did believe that she had feelings for Saki and viewed her as a romantic rival.

"Ē ne," Reiko said to herself with a scoff, "I admit that I do like Saki-chan a lot, but I can't really be in love with her, right? Saki-chan and I are both girls, so the idea that we're aikoka… it's just ridiculous."

However, even as she dismissed the notion, she could not help but wonder if perhaps there was at least some small inking of truth to it. Nonetheless, by the time she pushed her thoughts regarding Yōsuke to the back of her mind, she found that he was already out of sight.

Shaking her head, glad that he failed to notice her, or if he did, then he had obviously decided to leave her alone for the time being, she then started to walk towards the apartment complex where she lived with her mother.

"… Jūbunna, just leave onē-san alone," a new annoyed and frustrated sounding voice came, causing Reiko to stop and she turned back round to see two boys about her own age walking out from the Gas Station's store.

"Oya oya, Umeji," the boy on the left said, obviously replying to his friend, "You're ane is just so hot, I can't help myself. I mean, who wouldn't want to go out with Rika-chan?"

"That's Rika-san to you, Gōki, ima shizukani," the boy on the right, whom Reiko now identified as Umeji, said in an annoyed tone.

"Oya oya, you're no fun," the boy on the left, whom Reiko now identified as Gōki replied with a pout.

Umeji just growled in response.

He had dark messy bluish grey hair and light milky chocolate brown eyes. He also had a small, barely noticeable scar just at the left edge of his mouth, though unlike Kanji, he did not look as if he was part of a delinquent gang. He wore white trainers with at least four blue streaks on either side running downwards from left to right at diagonal angles, grey trousers with pockets at the sides at the top, much like Yōsuke's, only it was highlight by small thin black lines. He also wore a black belt round his waist with a silver buckle, and on his upper torso, he wore a bluish grey jacket that looked almost identical to Yōsuke's with the fur at the end of the hood being back, and unlike Yōsuke's jacket, this one was completely devoid of decorations aside from the depiction of a two-on-two volleyball match on the back with the players all coloured as black silhouettes and the ball between the net with one of the players raised high with their arms outstretched above their head and their feet off the ground. Underneath the jacket, Reiko could just make out a blue t-shirt with a red outline at the collar, though unlike Yōsuke, Umeji did not have a set of headphones around his neck.

Gōki, by comparison, had shoulder-length brownish red hair that fanned out at either side and dark grey-almost-black eyes. He wore a pair of black laced shoes with dark brown bottoms, a pair of dark blue jeans, a brown belt with an ovular brown buckle with a golden outline and the golden depiction of a bull's head at the front. On his upper torso he wore a blue unzipped jacket with lack cuffs at the end of the sleeves and a thick black line that ran from cuff to cuff over his elbows and around the back of his chest, and at the elbows were big black circles. The jacket also had two pockets, one at either side, near the bottom with black flaps, which were buttoned in place by two silver buttons and also two breast pockets, again, one at either side with the same assortment as the two bottom pockets. The interior of the jacket was also black, displayed by the fold-back collar at the top. Underneath his jacket, her had a dark greenish brown sweater with a strange zigzag pattern, with both upward and downward zigzags, with the downward zigzags coloured red and the upward zigzags coloured yellow. To Reiko, looking into those zigzags seemed to have an almost hypnotic effect.

However, neither boy seemed to notice her standing nearby, or if they did, then they chose to ignore her.

"Mizuwosasu hito," Gōki grumbled under his breath with a pout as he followed Umeji out the gas station.

Umeji just grumbled, but otherwise ignored his friend.

"Nē, otōto," a new female voice came, causing the two boys and Reiko, who had, until then, become mesmerised by the zigzag pattern, to turn their attention to where Kanji had come from earlier, and all three saw a girl walking towards the two boys.

This girl had long black hair that was tied into a ponytail that went down to just beneath her shoulders, and held in place by a green bobble, and she also had the same colour of eyes as Umeji, though they were a slightly darker shade than his. She wore a pair of brown slip-on shoes, light greyish blue knee-high socks, a grey skirt that went down to halfway between her waist and knees, a light blue plain unzipped jacket those sleeves went down to her elbows and a white t-shirt depicting a long-haired blonde woman with blue eyes and wearing female Japanese school gym gear holding a volleyball in her hands. All in all, this girl looked stunningly beautiful, and Reiko found that she would be surprised if she came across a boy that did not want to date her, not that she was jealous or anything.

"Hai, what is it, onē-san?" Umeji replied to the girl as she stopped right in front of the two boys.

"Konnichiwa, Rika-chan," Gōki greeted with a somewhat smug smile that he shot at Umeji before turning his attention back to the girl, whom Reiko now identified as Rika, "I can call you Rika-chan, can't I?"

"Why of course you can, Gōki-kun," Rika replied with a gentle smile and followed it up with a small giggle, much to Umeji's obvious displeasure, and he could not help but groan as his friend turned to shoot him a rather smug grin.

"See, Rika-chan doesn't mind if I call her Rika-chan, so what's the problem, Umeji?" he said to his friend before he turned his attention back to Rika, "He says I can't call you Rika-chan."

"Onē-san, why are you here?" Umeji asked, paying attention to his sister, while shooting a glare at Gōki, clearly wanting to change the subject, since he felt that it was getting rather awkward for him.

"Ā, otō-san sent me to find you," Rika replied, putting whatever thoughts she had of the previous subject to the back of her mind, "He needs help with cleaning out the shako, he did tell you that that he'd be cleaning it out in order to fit the car in, didn't he?"

"Hai, he did," Umeji said rather hurriedly, glad that he had something to take his mind off his friend's crush on his older sister, "Thanks for reminding me, onē-san. I better get back home."

He then, rather hurriedly, left in the direction Rika had come from leaving his friend and sister behind.

"Gomenne, Rika-chan," Gōki apologised with a respectful bow with a frown on his face as he thought of his friend, "Honestly, I don't know what his problem is with the fact that I'm interested in you."

"I'm his ane," Rika replied, though, Reiko could see that she was fighting to suppress a blush at hearing Gōki announce that he was interested in her, "And as my kyōdai, he's rather protective of me, so naturally I'm off limits to everyone, include his shinyū."

"Shitteiru," Gōki replied with a sigh as he started to walk down the Shopping Distract, "Anyway, sayōnara, Rika-chan. Jā ne."

"Mm," Rika responded with a grunt and a nod before she turned and started to walk back in the direction she had come from, the same direction that her brother had run off in.

Now that she was alone, once again, though, she felt that she had been alone to begin with, since none of the trio had regarded her, Reiko could not help but develop an interest in what had just transpired in front of her. Like with Kanji, she was not all that well acquainted with any of them. However, she did happen to know Rika by her reputation, though, unlike with Kanji, her reputation was a relatively good one. Hirase Rika was the star-player of Yasogami High's all-female volleyball team, and from what Reiko knew, starting tomorrow, it was her final year at Yasogami High and she was the overall favourite of being named team captain of the Volleyball Club this year. She had heard it all from Saki, who was also going to be in her final year, since that last year, both she and Rika had been in the same class, though Saki never really interacted with her all that much. She just heard from Saki what little information she managed to pick up.

As for the two boys, she did know them as Hirase Umeji, Rika's younger brother, who was in the same year as her, and the same can be said for his friend, Saitō Gōki, though she hardly knew anything about them. Despite being in the same year, Reiko noted that they had been in a different class than her, though, she had seen them every now and then, but did not interact with them at all. Every time she did see them, though, they seemed to be arguing, and since Rika's name tended to pop up in those arguments from what little Reiko did hear, she guessed that Umeji was not all that pleased that his best friend had a crush on his sister, and what she had just witnessed only served to confirm those suspicions. Not that Reiko cared or anything. Whenever Reiko did happen to overhear their arguments in the past, she just ignored them, only picking up certain words, but other than that she left them alone.

Thinking it over, she supposed that she probably would have gotten to know Rika better if she had joined the Volleyball Club, but she never expressed an interest in the sports clubs. At Yasogami High there were sports clubs and culture clubs and students had the choice of choosing to join at least two clubs, one sports club and one culture club, though joining was not mandatory, and neither was attending said clubs for the students that did join. She never actually expressed an interest in sports, mainly because the sports uniforms revealed far too much of her arms and legs, which had scars and bruises from where her mother had repeatedly beaten her.

Instead she focused on the culture clubs, and thankfully, her mother did allow her to join, even if she was looking to prove that she would never amount to anything no matter how hard she tried. However, by some strange twist of fate, she found that she had inherited her mother's natural artistic talent, and had joined the Art Club. Her mother had been an artist before her ruination, and by chance, many of the other club members had found her paintings to be very good. However, unfortunately, it meant nothing to her mother. Ritsuko had seen a few of her paintings, and despite agreeing that they were indeed good, perhaps almost as good as some of her own paintings that she had painted in the past, she just dismissed them regardless, claiming that it did not matter how good they were because, due to the fact that she was born out of wedlock, no one would be interested in her work.

"Che, I've been milling around too long," she groaned to herself, looking down at the bag containing the smashed sake bottle, "Mā, I guess it can't be helped I suppose."

Not that the fact that she was now late in returning home with a broken sake bottle would help her. Reiko knew that her mother would punish her anyway. Ritsuko was never really interested in hearing any of her excuses, even if said excuses turned out to be valid reasons. It would matter not if she turned up with a broken sake bottle or a replacement. Her mother always dealt out the same degree of punishment not matter how minor or major the reason.

"Nē, Kazebana-san," a new female voice came, causing Reiko to almost jump out of her skin and she turned around to see two girls standing behind her with curious looks on their faces, "Are you okay?"

"You look like you're just standing around and staring into space," the girl with long black hair said, as both girls stared at her with concerned looks on their faces.

"Ā, Satonaka-san, Amagi-san, what are you two doing here?" Reiko asked, a bit surprised that the two girls had decided to speak to her.

She knew exactly who those two were, since they were not only in the same year as her, but had also been in the same class the previous year, though, she never really interacted with either of them all that much. The only times she remembered having really interacted with them was when the situation called for it, like when she had been partnered in the same group as them a few times in the past for certain assignments and she recalled that they had all helped one another in setting up decorations for the school's culture festival.

The girl on the left, Satonaka Chie, had short light brown hair and brown eyes. She wore light green boots that went up to three-quarters of the way to her knees and were a yellowish white colour at the front over the tops of her toes. There were also yellowish white semi-circle arches at the back at the bottoms and thick yellowish white outlines at the tops with black strings attached at the outer sides that went halfway down to her ankles. She also wore yellow socks that emerged slightly from the tops of her boots along with a rather short navy jean skirt along with what appeared to be three tops and a green and yellow unbuttoned jacket with at least six white buttons. The first top looked a bit like a child's white sundress that Chie had long since outgrown with a wavy bottom. Underneath that appeared to be a black and dark grey horizontal striped tank top and underneath that appeared to be a sea-blue t-shirt. The jacket had a yellow bottom with vertical black lines creating rectangles, the same was true with the high-rise collar. The jacket also had pockets near the bottom, one at each side, which were each highlighted by a diagonal yellow rectangular line as a forty-five-degree downward angle, from left the right on the right side, and right to left on the left side, and at the outer side of each sleeve, there was a thick yellow stripe that went up over the top of Chie's shoulder to her neck. One the back was a yin-yang style symbol with the top half being a dark brownish yellow colour and the bottom half the same yellowish white colour as the non-green parts of her boots. She also had a red badge with three dots forming a downward pointing triangle pinned to the upper left side at the front and she had a black string looped around her neck that held a small purple crystal, forming a necklace.

The other girl, Amagi Yukiko, by contrast had long black hair that went down to behind where her stomach was, though, she had two strands that hung from the front over her shoulders that went down to just beneath her breasts and dark brown eyes that were so dark that one could easily mistake them for being black. She wore dark, almost black boots with dark brown bottoms and black outline at the tops, which were just under her knees. She also wore what appeared to be a mix between a jacket and a dress, which was red in colour and went down to halfway between her hips and knees. The jacket-dress had three black buttons on the left side and a cut that was also on the left side that was filled in by a black material. The jacket-dress also exposed her upper chest above her breasts, though the outline that covered the tops of her breasts was a dark brownish back with a triangular jagged end. She also had a reddish orange scarf tied around her neck with the knot situated on her left side and the ends were pointed and were highlighted with a white colour and a yellowish orange border that separated the reddish orange from the white. She also had a red headband over the top of her head.

"Well, Yukiko and I were on our way over to my place when we saw you just standing there and staring into space like you couldn't help it," Chie replied in response to Reiko's earlier question.

"Hai, we were worried that you may have been in a bit of trouble," Yukiko added, as she also voiced her concern, speaking in a somewhat quiet tone.

"Ā, well, I'm okay now," Reiko replied with a hasty nod, deciding that she had been milling around the gas station long enough, "In fact I was just about to leave."

Yukiko turned and looked down at the bag containing the broken sake bottle before she walked over to pick it up. She then noticed a small puddle that had formed just next to the bag and when she wrapped her hand around the handle, she almost immediately withdrew, feeling that the handle was rather wet.

"I'm guessing that you had some sort of accident," she said, looking between the bag and Reiko.

"Hai, that's right," Reiko said with a nod, deciding to go along with it, since she really had dropped the bag, "I was on my way home when, somehow I must've accidentally dropped it. It was for my haha."

"Haha, is that what you call your mother?" Chie asked, raising a curious eyebrow, as it was unusual for people to address their own mothers as haha, and may even be considered rude.

However, given the relationship between her and her mother, Reiko absolutely refused to refer to her with the usual titles that symbolised respect. Sure, the only exceptions were whenever she was with Ritsuko, both in private and in public, but since her mother was not here, she refused to refer to her respectfully, since she had come to despise her for all the beatings she had given her over the years.

As for Chie and Yukiko, despite not knowing either one of them personally, she did know that they were usually always seen together despite their contrasting personalities. Yukiko was rather timid and shy whereas Chie was loud and boisterous. All in all, they were the most unlikely pair one could ever hope to meet. Chie was pretty much a tomboy who was into Kung Fu and who had no problems talking to people whereas Yukiko, on the other hand, was the shy and timid heiress to the Amagiya Ryokan, who had problems opening up to folk, though given her looks, she was pretty popular round Yasogami High and was constantly being hounded with requests from boys to date her, which she always turned down no matter what, and given Yukiko's lack of a boyfriend and all the boys' desires to go out with her, many of the boys had dubbed trying to get Yukiko to agree to go out with them, the "Amagi Challenge", though by now, most of the boys had pretty much given up, realising how hopeless it was, with only the most diehard souls still trying every now and then.

The Amagiya Ryokan, now that was a famous landmark of Inaba, Reiko reminisced. It had been dubbed the "Pride of Inaba" and featured in a good variety of magazines and brochures with many people coming to Inaba just for the soul purpose of staying there, and as the manager's daughter, Yukiko was going to inherit it someday, though, from what Reiko could see, rather than beaming with pride at that prospect, Yukiko did not look all that enthusiastic about it, and in fact seemed rather depressed over the issue. From what Reiko had seen over the course of the previous year, sometimes the Ryokan needed help, and Yukiko occasionally did not turn up for class or she just headed straight home after school. It was those times that Reiko noticed that she was at her most depressed state. Sometimes, she had to take a few days off school due to a need to rest after a busy session, and when she came back, she was depressed with only Chie for company.

As for Chie, herself, Reiko could not help but notice that she was very protective of Yukiko. She was normally the one who kept the boys at bay and scared them off, especially those few who were too stubborn to accept no for an answer, though unlike Yukiko, whenever they were not together, Chie was seen with a variety of other people, including Yōsuke, whom she seemed to have a love-hate relationship with. Unlike Yōsuke though, Reiko found herself okay with Chie since her on-off friendship with him did not cross paths with her, and Chie even occasionally let him borrow her DVDs, though whenever angry with him, Chie would always lash out at him in some way, which she giggled at, though she knew that that was her own dislike for Yōsuke coming to the surface.

As for Chie's relationship with Yukiko, since they were mostly seen together, like with her and Saki, Reiko had heard talk that perhaps they were a romantic couple, and she often wondered that herself, though she would never dare ask that to either of them, since Chie was also known for having a fierce fiery temper and a tendency to lash out whenever she was upset, and asking about such a topic would undoubtedly be a sure way of upsetting her. However, unlike with Saki and her, whereas the talk about them being romantically involved with one another came about due to her dislike of Yōsuke and her hanging round Saki, whom Yōsuke was interested in, Chie and Yukiko were both rumoured of being a romantic couple because they were always seen together and seemed to be inseparable, plus Chie always mostly was there to scare away any boys that were pestering Yukiko for a date, and there were a few times Reiko had come across them both alone, and Yukiko seemed like a completely different person. She was more cheerful and seemed to burst into spontaneous fits of laughter over even the most ridiculous and insignificant of things, though she put that down to the fact that she was mostly comfortable round Chie enough to feel at ease, since Yukiko never once displayed any of those cheerful traits whenever she was alone or with Chie around other people.

"Konnichiwa, Kazebana-san," another new female voice came and all three girls turned their attention down towards the direction where Saki and Naoki had been arguing, though the Konishi Siblings were no longer there, obviously having gone back home.

Instead, there stood a woman who looked to be in her early thirties with short dark brown hair and orange coloured eyes holding a bag identical to the one that Reiko had dropped. She wore grey boots with platforms underneath that rose half a foot off the ground, black leggings, a dark greyish brown skirt and a long-sleeved top that was the same colour. She also wore a light grey sleeveless coat that was unbuttoned and had a total of five white buttons. The coat also had thick dark grey lines that ran both vertically and horizontally, giving off a square pattern that was almost as hypnotic as Gōki's sweater.

However, she knew very well who this woman was, as she had bumped into her occasionally and they would often talk, though Reiko was rather hesitant to open up to her.

"Konnichiwa, Sonomura-san," she greeted with a smile.

Her name was Sonomura Maki, a recently-qualified psychiatrist whom she had accidentally bumped into after fleeing from her mother one night when she had flown into an alcohol-fuelled rage, and Reiko, fearing that her intoxicated mother may go too far and severely hurt her, or even kill her, had fled the apartment and accidentally ran into Maki, who back then, had just moved to Inaba with her mother, Setsuko. She had just opened a psychiatric clinic, and from what Reiko could gather, she clearly seemed to have a somewhat obsessive desire to help people with their problems. She had taken her in for the night and Reiko very quickly found that she was well as ease with her, and that she could talk to her, though, she did not tell her about her mother's abuse, fearing of what Ritsuko would do, not just to her, but Maki as well. She feared that her mother may end up killing Maki, and even her, herself, if Maki tried to interfere. It was for that reason as well that she had never tried to make any friends in the past, because she feared that it would infuriate her mother, though, the only reason she made an exception with Saki was because or her similar issues concerning her father. However, unfortunately, it seemed that Maki had a fair idea about what was going on, and had urged her to open up in the past, but Reiko found that she was too fearful to do so, but Maki never pressed the issue whenever it came up and just changed the subject, obviously must be sensing that she was uncomfortable. However, aside from that, both of them had a rather friendly relationship and Reiko found that she was coming to view the recently-qualified psychiatrist a second mother. She was definitely more of a mother to her than Ritsuko ever was.

"I couldn't help but notice that you dropped your bag with the sake bottle in it, and so, I bought a replacement for you," Maki said, as she walked over to Reiko and offered her the bag she was holding.

"Ā, arigatōgozaimasu, Sonomura-san," Reiko said simply, clearly taken aback by the psychiatrist's act of generosity.

"Dōitashimashite," Maki replied with a smile.

"Ē, you two know each other?" Chie said in confusion, as both she and Yukiko looked on in surprise, since neither of them knew Maki.

"Mochiron, we met eight months ago when I first moved to Inaba," Maki explained, as she turned to regard the two other girls, "She accidentally ran into me."

"Sokka," Yukiko said quietly to herself.

"Oya, you must've been in a hurry if you weren't looking where you were going," Chie said with a playful laugh.

"Hai, that was it," Reiko said, since in a sense, it was the truth; she was in a hurry to escape her mother, and in her fear, she failed to realise that her mother had been too drunk to chase after her, and she suddenly decided that she had hung around long enough, and decided to take her leave before either Yukiko or Chie inquired more on the subject, "Well, I've been milling around here for far too long. I'm late enough as it is in getting home. I really shouldn't keep haha waiting much longer, she'll already be mad enough at me already as it is."

Maki frowned, noticing how hurriedly the young girl had said that last part, and Reiko turned to regard her.

"Aratamete arigatō, Sonomura-san," she said before she turned and started to run, much to the confusion of both Chie and Yukiko.

"Ano, was it something we said?" Chie said in confusion, clearly not expected Reiko to just run off out of the blue like that, and both she and Yukiko turned to give one another questioningly confused looks.

* * *

Maki watched Reiko run off and sighed, knowing that she was obviously dodging any potential questions that both the other two girls had for her, since she knew that Reiko was deeply uncomfortable about discussing issues about her mother. She had met Reiko eight months previously after she had accidentally run into her. She remembered how scared and frightened the young girl looked, especially when she apologised repeatedly over and over again. Feeling sorry for her and realising that she needed help, Maki had taken her in and offered her a room for the night. Reiko had told her that she had had a bit of a disagreement with her mother and simply wanted to wait till her mother had cooled off before she returned to the apartment that they both shared. That particular subject caused her to frown. She and Reiko had become fast friends, though whenever they talked, she noticed how evasive Reiko was whenever the subject of her mother popped up, and Maki could not help but suspect that her mother was abusing her. Reiko did tend to wince a lot and she mostly tried to keep herself well covered, though every so often, Maki did happen to notice some tell-tale signs of bruises and scars, but she had pretended that she had not noticed, since she knew that Reiko would likely not tell her anything.

However, other than that, Reiko was rather talkative on subjects that were not pertaining to her mother. Maki had discovered that she was born out of wedlock, which probably was a possible reason for the abuse, since unlike the majority of the Western World, children born out of wedlock was still pretty much frowned upon for the most part in Japan, and that she was also an artist, something that warmed the psychiatrist's heart, as she had also taken to painting during her youth, especially during the year in which she was bedridden thanks to a weak constitution. Reiko did not know her father because she had never met him. She only knew that his name was Mikimi Kankurō and that he had a one-night stand with her mother before fleeing the next day. That was as much as Reiko was willing to share without becoming uncomfortable.

Nonetheless, she could see that Reiko clearly needed help and she was determined to do whatever she could to help her. She found that the younger girl was rather pleasant to be around whenever the topic of her mother did not come up, and Maki found herself wishing that she could get Reiko away from her mother and adopt her as her own daughter, despite the fact that she knew that due to the fact that she was single, she could not hope to ever legally adopt a child unless the law changed. However, part of her had to wonder if that was because she happened to share a name with her former employer, Hīragi Reiko, from the Hīragi Psychotherapy Counselling Service that was based in the Kōnan District of Sumaru City, where she had worked part-time as a psychiatrist's assistant twelve years previously back in 1999.

Sighing to herself while shaking her head, she turned to regard the other two girls.

"Well, I guess we should get going, are, Yukiko," Chie said with a sigh after recovering from Reiko's hasty departure.

"Hai," Yukiko replied with a small nod.

"Chottomatte kudasai!" Maki called out, as the two younger girls started to walk away.

"Are, Sonomura-san?" Yukiko said, stopping before turning to face the older woman.

"Listen girls… ano, what are your names?" Maki said before realising that she did not know either of the two girls' names.

"Ā, I'm Satonaka Chie," Chie said, formally introducing herself, and then she extended her arm out at Yukiko, "And this is my shinyū, Amagi Yukiko."

"Ano… it's very nice to meet you, Sonomura-san," Yukiko said in a polite tone, and she followed it up with a respectful bow, "Sorry that we had to meet like this."

"Nē, don't apologise like that," Chie whispered, looking a bit upset, "It makes it look as if I had no upbringing."

"Well, anyway girls, I really need to ask a favour of you both," Maki said with a pleading look in her eyes, ignoring Chie's statement, "It's about Kazebana-san."

"Are, what about her?" Chie asked in confusion.

"Look, I know this might be difficult for you, but please, I must ask you…" Maki said in a sincere tone, "Can you please try to make friends with her?"

"Are, make friends with her?" Chie asked in confusion.

"Onegaishimasu," Maki practically pleaded as she clasped her hands in front of her and gave the two girls a pleading look, "I realise that I'm asking a lot from you, especially since I realise that she's not the most sociable girl around, but please… have some patience with her. She'll most certainly try to push you away. However, I'd prefer it if she had some friends. She could really use them."

"Eto… we're not sure what to say to that," Chie said in a rather reluctant tone as she turned her head to look at Yukiko, who also looked reluctant.

"I don't think that we can guarantee that," Yukiko said in a soft and quiet tone that was barely above a whisper as she looked as if she was retreating into herself.

"Especially after hearing the part about her pushing us away," Chie added, putting in her two cents.

However, Maki did manage to catch what Yukiko said, and she also understood Chie's misgivings as well.

"All I ask is that you try, nothing more," she said simply, hoping that that would be enough.

"Besides, doesn't she already have a friend in Konishi-senpai, doesn't she?" Chie spoke up, knowing about Reiko's friendship with Saki.

Yes, that was true, Maki submersed. She was well aware of Reiko's friendship with Saki. Saki was perhaps the only other person that Reiko did not push away, though she knew that even Saki did not have the full story about Reiko's mother, just as Reiko did not have the full story about the suspected abuse that she believed Saki had suffered from her father. She did not know the full story with Saki either, only that she had issues with her father going back years, even long before Junes had come along, and like Reiko, she did not open up, though she was far too nice to even try pushing people away, so long as they did not press the issue. She reckoned that the only reason the two girls made exceptions for one another was because of their similar situations, though that was mostly just a guess. However, she could see that both Reiko and Saki needed to make friends.

"Reiko-chan, Saki-chan, I wish that the pair of you would just open up to me," she thought to herself sadly.

"Hai, that's true, but she, as well as Konishi-san could really use more friends," she spoke up, reiterating her point.

"Oya, this really means a lot to you, doesn't it, Sonomura-san? Chie said as she analysed Maki's state of mind, "I noticed earlier how she addressed her mother as haha, which isn't normal. Usually it's okā-chan, okā-san, okā-sama, kā-chan, kā-san or kā-sama or on the cases of some people, haha-ue. I know that you're not her haha, but you wouldn't happen to know what's going on, do you?"

"That's not my place to say," Maki replied, as she shook her head, "Since I don't know the full story either, since she won't talk to me about it, but I do have a rough idea. However, it's something that Kazebana-san will have to tell you herself, and that's if she feels like it. I also must stress, don't bring this up with her, whatever you do. She's not comfortable with discussing that particular subject."

She then shot the two girls a stern look, and Yukiko could not help but tremble slightly, despite the fact that Maki meant them no harm.

"Like Yukiko said, we can't guarantee anything," Chie said with a sigh, after briefly thinking it over as she looked Maki in the eye, "However, we will try, but we can't promise you anything."

"Kekkōda," Maki relented with an accepting nod, "All I ask is that you try, nothing more."

"Jā okē, ikuzo, Yukiko," Chie said with a satisfied nod, as both she and Yukiko walked away.

Maki watched them go till they were out of sight before she started to make her own way home, picking up the bag that Reiko had dropped and planned to dispose of it when she found a bin.

* * *

Unbeknownst to any of them, the Gas Station Attendant that had seen to the Dōjima Family, Yū and Euphemia had been watching the entire situation play out, and their eyes widened upon seeing Maki. Despite having never met Maki face to face before, the Attendant did recognise her as one of Philemon's previous Chosen Ones that was instrumental in preventing the end of the world back in 1996 in Mikage-chō when Nyarlathotep manipulated the businessman, Kandori Takahisa into shooting for godhood with his DEVA Machine, of which Maki had somehow become Kandori's unknowing and unwilling guinea pig.

"Sonomura Maki, just what are you doing here?" the Attendant mused to themselves, "Her chapter in Philemon's machinations is over. Could it be Philemon's doing?"

They did wonder if Philemon did indeed have a hand in Maki's presence in Inaba. After all, just because he could not interfere directly did not mean that he could not interfere completely. There were many ways that he could interfere without becoming directly involved. In other words, he could interfere indirectly, though that was more Nyarlathotep's forte. They were aware of the old bet that Philemon and Nyarlathotep had with one another, and throughout their many struggles, Nyarlathotep was the one that mostly looked for loopholes to exploit in order to tip the odds in his favour, if not outright cheating and taking action personally. In fact, that old bet was still in effect, even today despite Nyarlathotep's devastating defeat twelve years previously. Since his defeat, Nyarlathotep had been banished from their dimension and had somehow ended up in Euphemia's world.

Yes, the Attendant was aware of Nyarlathotep and his influence in Euphemia's World, how he had shaped its history, though they were surprised that Nyarlathotep did not seem to object to them whisking Euphemia away. That was not like Nyarlathotep. They knew that he already had his own plans for Euphemia, and he did not like others hijacking those he had plans for, so the most logical explanation was that he must have some ulterior motive in mind.

"Not that it matters," the Attendant thought with a scoff, "As I said before, Euphemia's fate is inevitable regardless of the outcome. I don't know what he hopes to gain by allowing me to confiscate her from his game."

Yes, that much was true, they reminded themselves, and upon reminding themselves of that, they suddenly decided that Maki's unexpected presence did not matter all that much either. Even if she did have an influence on the outcome of their experiment, it mattered not as there was nothing she, or anyone else could do that would alter Euphemia's fate, and to the Attendant, that's all that mattered, though if Philemon was indeed behind her presence, it was rather unusual for him to exploit loopholes.

Philemon really needed to be careful about how he went about things, the Attendant mused, as since the accord he had with Nyarlathotep was still in place, Nyarlathotep could not re-enter their dimension so long as the accord held true, and one of the ways to break the accord would be by Philemon interfering directly, and if the accord was broken, it would enable Nyarlathotep to re-enter their dimension, and that was something they did not want under any circumstances, as they knew that Nyarlathotep would simply pick up from where he left off before his banishment.

"Tread very carefully, Philemon," the Attendant said, speaking aloud, as they shuddered just thinking about Nyarlathotep and the chaos he would most definitely bring, "For between me and the Crawling Chaos, one must wonder, which of us is more suited to putting Humanity to the test?"

* * *

Kujikawa Rise stomped out of her dressing room as her manager was discussing things over with the agency's board members on her next big appearance. She had just gotten through with the latest in a series of photoshoots following her part in that Quelorie Magic diet soda commercial, and being honest with herself, she was getting really sick and tired of her life as an idol. She found it rather frustrating, though she did not mind the repetitiveness of everything she did. No, it was not the repetitive aspect of the job that was frustrating her. It was due to the fact that she had long since realised that her fans, her "so-called" friends, were not really all that interested in her as a person, but rather, they were only interested in her stage persona, and not her as a person.

Rise was rather unique in the idol industry, in that she did not have one stage name, but rather two. At first, she had appeared under the name, Risechī, but after a while, after realising that everyone was only interested in her Risechī persona, she had dropped the name and retooled herself under the name, Risette in order to see what would happen, and surprisingly, the agency, Takura Productions, had decided to let her go ahead with it, though, she cited their reasoning as being that it was something that had never been done before, and they were interested to see what would happen. In other words, to them, it was probably just an experiment, since idols tended to just stick with the one stage name.

It was something that she had tried to see if the fans would start to get interested in her as a person, but unfortunately, that had failed to get results, since, as soon as everyone realised that she had changed stage names, they were all now only interested in Risette, though some fans still did talk about Risechī, and it led to a rumour that Risechī was perhaps a caterpillar and Risette was the butterfly that Risechī had become since they were both the same person. It seemed that no matter what she did, she could not get the people to see her as Kujikawa Rise.

"Kujikawa Rise, who the hell is she?" Rise imagined a few people saying behind her back, and it caused her to wince, since she genuinely believed that that was what most people would say if her real name had been brought up, "She's probably just some haisha needing a mask to feel special."

She winced at just imagining that. Even though she had never heard anyone say those sorts of things, those were the sorts of things she believed that her fans were probably saying behind her back.

"Kinda ironic isn't it?" she mused to herself with a sad chuckle, "The whole reason I became an idol in the first place was because I wanted to make friends, but after all this time… nothing's changed."

That was true, she mused to herself. She never really had any friends back when she was a child. She was rather shy and found it awkward trying to talk to others, and due to this, whenever she was trying to muster up the courage to talk to people, she had this habit of staring at her feet, and it led to her becoming a victim of bullying. No one had been expecting anything from her and she had learned to live with the fact she was being bullied. However, she had filled out an application form for Takura Productions, though, she never expected anything to come of it. One of her relatives, though, had sent it off to Takura Productions without her knowledge, and not only did it pass the first audition, but by sheer chance, Rise had won.

At first, after hearing the news, she had considered turning them down, since she had not been expecting it and was a bit frightened of what could potentially go wrong, but after thinking it over, deciding to give it a shot, rationalising that if she could change, then perhaps she could make friends, and for a while, it seemed to pay off. After her debut, when she returned to school, no one bullied her, and in fact, those that had bullied her were now suddenly interested in her, wanting to talk to her, and not only that, but even those she did not know all that well and complete strangers were all wanting to talk to her as well. At first, Rise had been elated and believed that she was finally making friends.

However, after a while, when she was coming down from her metaphorical high, she started to realise that none of her "friends" were really all that interested in her. All they wanted to hear about was what she was doing as Risechī, and later, Risette. After all, very few of them had addressed her by her actual name, instead addressing her as Risechī, or Risette when she switched stage names. She had hoped that by changing stage names, it would get people interested in the person behind the Risechī persona, as she believed that they would start to wonder why she had switched stage names, but as soon the fans heard the news, they had just switched their attention to Risette, not really caring all that much about Kujikawa Rise the person, and it had left her feeling rather lonely and deflated.

She had also come to realise that since she had been an idol for so long and how she had constantly played a variety of different roles for the public that she had come to realise that she had lost sight of what she was really like to the point where she was unsure what traits belonged to her as a person and what traits belong to the false personalities she had shown to the public.

"Just what makes me… well me?" she said to herself with a sad sigh, "I'm not sure I really know anymore."

However, she was so occupied with her thoughts that she failed to notice a janitor standing on a stepladder as he was trying to hang a clock up on the wall to her right, and unfortunately, she bumped into him, causing him to lose his balance, dropping the clock in the process, potentially breaking it, and he fell off the stepladder on top of Rise.

"Itai," the janitor said, as her recovered and picked himself up.

He was not too badly hurt, though there was a pain in his left shoulder, but it was bearable. He frowned as he looked down at the clock and discovered that it was indeed broken. However, upon hearing a groan from behind him, he turned around and saw that Rise was still on the floor. He then held out a hand and offered to help her up.

"Are you alright, wakai josei?" he asked with a look of concern adorning his face.

Rise groaned, wincing in pain, as she accepted the hand and got back to her feet. In truth, she hurt all over from the weight of the janitor falling down on top of her, though she did realise that the whole incident was her own fault, since she had not been looking where she was going.

"Sumimasen, yōmuin-san," she apologised, giving the janitor an apologetic bow, "That was my fault, I should've been paying more attention to where I was going."

"Oya oya, don't worry about it," the janitor said with a dismissive chuckle, "Those things happen."

Looking the janitor over, Rise saw that he looked to be in his early thirties and had short dark reddish brown hair and light brownish grey eyes. He wore light brown laced shoes and teal-coloured overalls that consisted of teal-coloured trousers, a teal-coloured button jacket with at least eight white buttons, white sleeve cuffs, a white outline at the bottom with vertical black lines running around forming rectangles and two breast pockets, one on either side at the front. On the left side of his jack was the insignia that presented Takura Productions and underneath that was a white nametag that had red kanji symbols that read, Uesugi Hidehiko on it. He also wore a teal-coloured tap white a white visor and the Takura Productions insignia displayed on the front and resting on his forehead were a pair of yellow-shaded rectangular glasses that were tilted upwards from his ears.

"D-demo…" Rise said, trailing off, as she looked down at the broken clock, and then back at the janitor, whom she could now identify as Uesugi Hidehiko.

She did not really know him that well, though she did remember passing him by a few times as he tended to his duties, but other than that, she had never spoken to him before, and she did not bother getting to know him.

"Like I said don't worry about it… eto…" Hidehiko explained as he picked up the broken clock and trailed off, trying to remember who Rise was.

Though he never actually spoke with her before, he had seen her pass by a few times, but since she had not paid any attention to him, he had just ignored her in turn, and though he knew who she was, he was used to seeing so many faces each day that it took him a while to recognise her.

"Hai, I'm Risechī… or Risette… or whatever…" Rise said in a frustrated huff, believing that this janitor was going to want to hang with her due to her fake personas.

"Ā, Kujikawa-san," Hidehiko suddenly said, after hearing the frustrated annoyance in Rise's voice, "You're Kujikawa Rise, aren't you?"

"Are?" Rise said in surprised, as her eyes widened in shock, clearly not expecting to be addressed by her actual name for a change.

"I'm Uesugi Hidehiko," Hidehiko said, introducing himself, as he extended a hand towards a bewildered Rise.

Rise automatically accepted his hand, clasping it with her own, still shocked at the fact that Hidehiko had addressed her by her actual name and not by either of her stage personas. However, thinking about Hidehiko, and realising how familiar his name sounded, her eyes widened yet again, as she did recall seeing him on TV back when she was just a toddler as a variety talk-host host.

"Nē, aren't you the Uesugi Hidehiko, you know, the one that hosted that talk-show… what was it… Hidehiko Shitsumon Jikan?" she said, which caused Hidehiko to wince, though he very quickly regained his composure and then just laughed.

"Ā, you remember that far back, Kujikawa-san?" he replied to her question with a rather uncomfortable chuckle.

"Hai, I was only a yōji at the time, but I do remember that," Rise replied, and then shot him a stern look, "Only because you tended to humiliate your guests."

"Ahahaha… well, that's all in the past now," Hidehiko said with a laugh as he brought his hand to the back of his head and started scratching it before his look became serious, "I'll be honest with you, Kujikawa-san, back then, I had let my jiga get the best of me, and I was full of myself. As you said, I tended to humiliate my guests, only because I thought that it would appeal to the kankyaku, but unfortunately, I eventually ended up humiliating the wrong guy… in other words, someone was a lot of wealth and influence, and because of that, I was fired."

"Well, that's your own fault," Rise said simply, and surprisingly, Hidehiko nodded in agreement.

"You're right, however, thanks to onī-san, I wasn't down and out," the talk-show host-turned-janitor went on, "He helped me get back on my feet and now I work here as a yōmuin, though I only started working here recently as a favour from onī-san."

"A favour from your ani?" Rise said in surprise, though, she did not know why she was even listening to him, as she could easily just walk away, but for some reason that she could not explain, she felt compelled to listen to him.

She figured that perhaps it was because he had addressed her by her real name rather than either of her two stage names and she was hoping that perhaps he was seeing her as Kujikawa Rise rather than Risette or Risechī.

"Hai, onī-chan has a musume who recently passed an audition here, I don't know if you've met her, Uesugi Tamami?" Hidehiko replied to Rise's question, "I'm her oji, and onī-san wants me to keep an eye on her as payback him for helping me."

"Hai, I know Tamami-san," Rise said with a nod, knowing exactly who she was talking about.

She had met with Tamami a few times, though she found herself a bit put off by her personality, as Tamami tended to get pretty boisterous at times and had a bit of a bad temper with a tendency to pick fights, especially when she was not the centre of attention, and she seemed to exaggerate herself, believing she had a lot of fans. All in all, Tamami seemed like a typical textbook narcissist suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder, though because of her traits, the higher ups tended to relegate her to comic relief rolls, though she did not tell this to Tamami's uncle, unsure of how he would react.

"Anyway, Kujikawa-san, I couldn't help but notice that you were feeling a bit frustrated recently," Hidehiko went on, dismissing the subject of his niece.

"Are, hai, demo…?" Rise started to say, still feeling a bit bewildered, and in truth, she was unsure how to respond.

"Let me guess, you're probably feeling dejected and alone, that no one seems to appreciate you as a real person, just the geimei that you portray on stage," the janitor went on, interrupting Rise, much to her surprise, causing her eyes to widen in shock, "Onī-san knows the feeling. It's why he's having me keep an eye on Tamami-chan. In truth, he didn't agree with her, believing that no one would really like her for being her, just the geimei that she presents to the taishū. I can see, given how frustrated you are when you believed that I would address you by one of your geimei that you know what it feels like."

Rise just nodded, though she could not help but be curious as to where he was going with this.

"Hai, that's right," she said, following up her nod.

"Well, I have an old gakuyū, who's gone on to become a seishinkai, and who's also currently in the inakamachi of Inaba," Hidehiko went on to explain, "Her name's Sonomura Maki and she's set up a seishinryōhō there…"

"Inaba, that's where I'm from," Rise said, interrupting Hidehiko, though she did happen to notice his surprised look, "Ā, sumimasen, Uesugi-san."

"You're from Inaba…?" Hidehiko said in surprise, as his eyes widened before regaining his composure, "Well… I suppose that would make things easier. Look, if you're feeling down about your fans not really knowing you, just take some time off. Go see Maki-chan; she likes to help people with problems like that."

"Arigatō, Uesugi-san, but I don't think I need to see a seishinkai," Rise said, though his suggestion about taking time off did sound rather tempting, "I'm not mentally ill or anything."

"S-s-sumimasen," Hidehiko said rather hurriedly, fearing that he had unintentionally offended the young girl, and he waved his free hand in front of him, as he had the broken clock underneath his arm, "You don't have to if you don't want to. It's was only a suggestion."

He then turned and started to walk away, leaving Rise, who was seriously thinking it over. However, he suddenly stopped and glanced back at her.

"Just think it over, will you?" he said simply, "As I said, you don't have to. However, I'm sure Maki-chan won't mind. She likes to help people sort out their problems."

"Hai, I'll think about it," Rise said with a nod, though she was a bit puzzled why a total stranger would give her such helpful advice and would not expect anything in return.

Hidehiko just nodded with an accepting smile before turning and started to walk down the corridor in order to fetch a replacement clock for the one Rise had accidentally caused him to break.

* * *

Shirogane Naoto frowned, walking out of the police chief's office in the quiet country town of Akakusa just at the borders between the Yamanashi, Kanagawa and Shizuoka Prefectures after having just helped solve a case involving a thief that had stolen the mayor's most prized possessions.

"I don't care about any of that!" Naoto heard the chief practically scream in seething fury, "That gaki must've hired in outside help, that's the only explanation!"

Naoto stopped for a moment and winced at hearing that, as "he" felt that "he" had just been slapped in the face, but then shrugged it off with a sigh and kept walking towards the front door, all the while, feeling the hate-filled glares of everyone "he" passed by on "his" back.

However, Naoto was not surprised by this, though it still greatly upset "him". "He" was used to it. It was always like this for "him". Shaking "his" head, Naoto did "his" best to ignore them. Bringing it up would accomplish nothing, other than, perhaps, only serving to discredit "him". Yes, Naoto figured sadly, the police would very much like that. "He" would not be surprised if they had people looking into "his" background, looking for any shred of evidence that they could use to bring "him" down. Not only would Naoto not be surprised if "he" discovered that that's what they were doing, "he" was actually expecting it.

Naoto hailed from a long line of famous detectives, and ever since "he" was young, "he" often read detective novels and became fascinated by them. Naoto had lost both "his" parents in a car accident and had been taken in by "his" grandfather who took care of "him". Among the police, the elder Shirogane was a highly respected detective, and the last from the times before there were crime scene investigators, and calling in the help of detectives was considered normal. Naoto often fantasied about being like "his" grandfather and the protagonist characters of the novels "he" read, and yes, Naoto found that "he" was rather smart for "his" age. Naoto helped solve a lot of cases, though unfortunately for "him", rather than receive praise for "his" hard work, the police instead just cast "him" aside and took the credit for all the hard work that "he" had put into solving those cases for themselves, and all because of "his" age.

At fifteen-years-old, Naoto was still a minor and the police usually called "him" in when they were having trouble, though, upon meeting Naoto, they looked greatly offended. It was obvious that they only hired Naoto because of "his" family's name and were expecting an adult. The fact that they got a child no doubt made them feel insulted. However, they grudgingly allowed Naoto to help, though it was only because "he" was as good as the stories said. After Naoto's services were no longer required, "he" was promptly dismissed while the police basked in the glory of stealing the credit for "his" hard work.

This served to infuriate Naoto greatly. "He" was infuriated that the police had practically used "him" and then discarded "him" when "he" was no longer needed, all the while stealing the credit for "his" work.

"Don't bother us kodomo," Naoto remembered one particular offensive police officer tell him, "What would a gaki like you know? You're in our way."

Comments like those plagued "him", and whenever Naoto did end up proving them wrong, rather than acknowledge "him", it only served to intensify their dislike into pure hatred, as in their eyes, a mere child should not be that smart, and to have one that proved them wrong only served to bruise their egos, as they believed that Naoto had made them look like incompetent fools, which they basically were most of the time, at least, that was Naoto's opinion of them.

Naoto remembered one time when "he" helped with a rape case, the police had practically forced an innocent man to confess to the crime based on eyewitness testimony, though, as it turned out, the poor man just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Naoto was able to prove it and went public with it, much to the fury of the police, but unfortunately, in order to deflect the criticism from the police department that had been involved, one infuriated police detective had ran a smear campaign against their original suspect, making it seem that he had had illegal drugs in his possession, though, Naoto had also proven him innocent once again, but unfortunately the detective responsible had managed to cover up his involvement, and the police had managed to wriggle themselves out of owning up to their original mistake as a result.

One thing that Naoto knew infuriated the police was that because they were constantly under pressure from the higher ups to get whatever case they were working on solved as soon as possible, it led to them making rather rash and hurried decisions without properly examining all of the facts, and at times Naoto felt that they did not really care exactly who did what, just so long as they arrested someone and then have them prosecuted with the issue of guilt or innocence not even entering the equation. It was here that Naoto usually clashed with the police, as "he" preferred to go over everything rather thoroughly and meticulously. However, the police, at least from Naoto's point of view, did not seem to care about details, and given the immense pressure they were under from their superiors, "he" could not say "he" blamed them. However, trying to explain the situation to the higher ups was like arguing with a brick wall. No matter how many times they were told that solving cases took time and effort, they just ignored the people telling them that and reaffirmed their rhetoric on how cases should be solved as soon as possible, and would not listen to anyone. It was like they did not care about facts and where only interested in prosecuting people regardless of whether they were guilty or innocent.

"Īyakkaiharai," Naoto heard one policeman say as "he" exited the station and started making "his" way to the hotel "he" was staying at.

Naoto was sure that the police only continued to put up with "him" despite their objections to "his" interference due to "his" grandfather's influence. "His" grandfather was pretty well connected with the police, and Naoto was sure that they were fearful of getting on his bad side. After all, the Shirogane Family were highly respected and very popular with the general public. Unfortunately, Naoto had decided to use this popularity to "his" advantage and had recently started showing them that "he" had been the one who solved those cases that the police had tried to steal credit for. Though Naoto could do nothing about the cases they had already claimed credit for in the past, "he" had recently started communicating with the general public, appearing on television and showed them that he was the one that had been doing all the work, and it had led to "him" being dubbed the "Detective Prince".

Unfortunately, this had only served to infuriate the police even more, as they undoubtedly believed that Naoto was deliberately trying to undermine their competence, so much so, that they would now only call "him" in when they were desperate. Their strategy had been really simple, once they had exhausted everything at their disposal in trying to solve their latest case, they would call in Naoto, let "him" do the all the hard work, and then try to steal the credit for it to bolster their reputations.

However, now that Naoto was taking measures to prevent that, "he" knew that their hatred of him only increased. To them, "he" was nothing more than a child who seemed to enjoy making them look bad.

"It's just as well that they haven't discovered my secret," Naoto mused to "himself" with a sad chuckle, as he reached the entrance to the reception area of the hotel, "Otherwise they'd have even more reason to hate me, and it would probably be enough to discredit me."

* * *

Meanwhile, over in the United Kingdom, in the town of Langington near Glasgow, Scotland, just northeast of the town of Rutherglen, at fifty-six Donaldson Drive in the Donaldson Suburb of Langington, sixteen-year-old Robert Lenston Jr. tiredly came downstairs and rather sluggishly, and rudely, made his way over to the breakfast table where his father, Robert Lenston Sr. and his mother, Tamao I. Lenston were both waiting for him. In the UK, since it was eight hours behind Japan, it was mid-to-late morning, whereas back in Japan, it was late afternoon-going-into-early evening. It was also the second week of the Easter Holidays, which in Glasgow and the surrounding area always fell on the first two full weeks of April.

Robert Jr. then took his seat and taking a box of corn flakes, poured a few of them into the bowl in front of him, and then, he reached for the milk carton that was sitting on the table and poured some milk into the bowl before taking his spoon and started to eat his breakfast.

"Yer 'air's a mess," his father commented, breaking the somewhat tense silence, as he could see that his son was not all that happy with them at the moment.

"So, whit's it tae yae?" the younger Lenston replied with a rude snort and followed up with an angry sneer, making his dissatisfaction clear.

"Robert, that's no way to speak to your chichi!" his mother, who was Japanese, scolded, shooting her son a scolding glare, "I realise that you're upset about moving to Japan, but that's no excuse for your rudeness."

"Whitever," Robert Jr. replied with an uncaring shrug.

Robert Sr. just sighed, shaking his head. He just knew that this was going to happen. He just knew that his son would object to their plans to move to Japan. He knew that his son was perfectly happy living here and he had a social life in school, as well as a girlfriend. However, there was nothing he could do about it. His job demanded that he move to Japan, and he wanted to take his family with him. Besides, his wife would be returning to her homeland, and his son could certainly use a lesson in Japanese Culture, considering that Japanese blood flowed through his veins. However, Robert Jr. had been born and raised in Scotland, though he only understood Japanese because Tamao had practically drilled it into his mind since early childhood. He was also a big fan of Japanese anime and manga and had a variety of manga and anime DVDs up in his room.

However, the problem lay with Robert Jr. having done research on Japan via the Internet, and apparently, he had become so focussed on the negative aspects of Japanese Society that he had practically closed his mind off to the positive aspects and blew the negative aspects out of proportion.

"Come on noo, ah'm sure not ever'in' aboot Japan's aw bad," he said, trying to reassure his son, only to receive a snort in response.

"Jūbunna, Robert!" Tamao shouted with a glare, "We're going over to Japan, and that's all there is to it."

"Ah know," Robert Jr. responded in dejected displeasure.

"Disnae mean ah hiv tae like it," he then grumbled under his breath.

"And another thing, I do hope you don't intend to speak like that while we're over there," his mother went on with a stern look on her face, "It can come across as being rather rude."

"Aye, an' Japanese people ir aw aboot politeness an' don't take too kindly 'ae rudeness," Robert Jr. said in a boastfully smug tone, believing that he was finishing his mother's sentence, "Can't help it, it's the way everyone 'ere talks."

"I know," Tamao relented with a sigh, "However, I don't want you talking like that over in Japan. Neither I nor your chichi want to deal with any misunderstandings that may arise because of your native accent."

"Aw, come oan, it's not like the Glaswegian accent is the most offensive soondin' accent in the world," Robert Jr. replied in mock defeat with a bit of a laugh, "Some ae the other accents in the wold soond even maire offensive tae the point where a typical "hello" cin soond maire like a declaration ae war."

Robert Sr. could not help but agree, and even nodded in agreement. However, he then cleared his throat, knowing that his son was not going to like this next bit.

"Well, noo that that's oot ae the wiye, ah hiv some'in' 'ae tell ye, Robert," he spoke up, deciding to change the subject.

"Whit, we're no gauan aefteraw?" Robert Jr. mocked with a laugh, only to receive a glare from both his parents.

"As you know, before you were born, I was a diplomat," Robert Sr. said, suddenly speaking proper English, much to his son's surprise, "And because you were born, I decided to go on a hiatus, but now that you are old enough, I feel that it's time to end my hiatus, and that is why we're going over to Japan. I've been assigned the position of Second Secretary to the British Ambassador over in Tōkyō."

"Aye, ah know this awready," Robert Jr. said with a pout.

Robert Sr. groaned at that, wishing his son would not state the obvious. It was true that he was a diplomat, and he had been sent over to Japan in the past, and that was where he had met Tamao, who had been Ichioka Tamao back then. He met her while checking out the Japanese countryside in an area known as Yasoinaba, where he had helped her home after noticing that she was carrying a heavy load of shopping, though her father, Ichioka Daichi had been sceptical of him at first because he was a foreigner, but after a while, he had eventually warmed up to him, seeing that he genuinely did care about his daughter. As for him and Tamao, Tamao had insisted on paying him back for his generosity and they saw one another often whenever Robert Sr. managed to get time away from his work and they had gradually fallen in love over time, though, eventually Robert had been recalled back to the UK, but Tamao had followed him with her father's, albeit reluctant, blessing and they both married and three years later, Robert Jr. was born, which prompted Robert Sr. to take a hiatus from his job so he could be there for his son. However, now that Robert Jr. was now becoming old enough to take care of himself, Robert Sr. had decided to end his hiatus and, as luck would have it, his first assignment was to return to Japan.

"Yes, well, anyway, what I'm trying to tell you is that I managed to pull some strings to ensure that you will not be covered by my diplomatic immunity." he went on to say, still speaking in proper English, and to Robert Jr., it was as if he had dropped a bombshell.

"WHIT!" Robert Jr. exclaimed in shock, and then fixed his father with a furious glare, unable to believe what he just heard, "Ye cannae be serious!"

"Aye, ah im serious," Robert Sr. replied with an equally intense glare, as he lapsed back into speaking with his native accent.

"Not only that, but you'll also be staying with otō-san in the inakamachi of Inaba, my furusato," Tamao added, letting her son know that she had been aware of what his father had been doing and was okay with it.

"Why?" Robert Jr. asked angrily, since despite not wanting to move to Japan, he had expected to at least have the protection of diplomatic immunity.

"Because ah know, with how much ye've been readin' on the internet aboot ever'in' that's bad aboot Japan, ah just know that yer gonna end up gettin' in'ae a fight," Robert Sr. explained, fixing his son a silencing glare that stopped him from voicing whatever objections he had, as well as indicate that he was not finished talking, "And ah'd rather no get expelled fae Japan aw because ye couldnae keep oot ae trouble."

"Whit makes ye think that ah'm gonna pick a fight wae someb'dy?" Robert Jr. asked under his breath, as he shot his parents a disapproving glare.

"Jūbunna!" Tamao snapped, glaring at her son, letting him know that she will accept no further backtalk, "Now, we're going over to Japan, and you're not covered by diplomatic immunity. That's all there is to it. It's basically to teach you a lesson. I know how much you've been reading into Japan while you browse the internet, and I also know how much you've practically hyped up the downside of Japanese Culture while having closed your mind off to the upside. This trip is basically a way of showing you, that while Japan is not perfect and there are a few things that aren't nice about it, that there also exists many positive aspects about it. Like it or not, Robert, Japanese blood flows in your veins, and I happen to be Japanese, and I don't appreciate the fact that my own musuko is practically insulting my culture. You will be staying with your sofu, Ichioka Daichi, my otō-san in Inaba-shi, and if you get into trouble, you will experience the full force of the law, and, that, is, FINAL!"

"No fair," Robert Jr. grumbled with a defeated sigh, realising that there was no point in arguing with his parents any further, as whenever his mother raised her voice like that, it was a sign that the discussion was over and persistence would be met with severe punishment.

Their minds were made up. Apparently this was a trip designed to basically prove his negative views about Japanese Society wrong, at least that's how he interpreted it. It was not that he was planning to pick a fight with the Japanese. He knew better than that. If he did get into a fight, then he resolved that he would not be the one who would throw the first punch, so he saw his father's pulling strings to have him exempt from diplomatic immunity as pointless.

"No'in' ah cin dae aboot it, ah suppose," he thought with a defeated sigh as he continued to eat his breakfast before he got up and stormed back up to his room to get ready for the day.

Robert Jr. had short light greyish green hair that was currently in a mess due him just getting out of bed and deep green eyes, and currently he only wore a pair of white boxers with thin dark blue vertical stripes and a white sleeveless vest.

Robert Sr. had short dark brown hair that was also messy due to him just getting out of bed and the same dark green colour of eyes as his son. He currently wore a pair of black underpants underneath a plain dark grey bathrobe.

Tamao had shoulder length greenish grey hair that was also in a mess because she was not long out of bed, the same colour as her son's, only a shade darker and hazel coloured eyes and all she currently wore was a pink short-sleeved nightdress that went down to her ankles and one the back was the depiction of a red torii gate that symbolised the entrance to a Shintō Shrine with dark pink, darker than the shade of pink on the nightdress, kanji that read Tatsuhime Jinja.

"What are we gonna dae wae that boay?" Robert Sr. said, shaking his head with a rather sad and frustrated sigh.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in Japan, over in Sumaru City, in the Aoba District, Fujii Yukino, formally Mayuzumi Yukino stood in front of an apartment door on the second floor of a relatively newly built apartment complex as she pushed the doorbell. A few seconds after the familiar ding-dong sound, the door opened revealing a woman in her mid-to-late thirties with short dark grey, slightly blue-tinted hair and dark brownish purple eyes, and who wore a pair of tight brown shorts that went down to halfway between her hips and knees and a light brown t-shirt with two pink love hearts on the front that were positioned over the woman's breasts and a purple line running down the centre between the two love hearts.

"Konnichiwa, Yukki," the woman greeted with a friendly smile, before she motioned with her hand for Yukino to come in, "Ohairikudasai."

Yukino nodded and walked into the apartment's genkan before taking off her trainers, which were white round the bottom and grey at the top over the feet with black stripes moving downwards from left to right at the sides. The backs were also white, and the tongues were the same grey colour as the tops.

Aside from her trainers, Yukino also wore white, ankle-high socks, red trousers that went down to halfway between her knees and ankles with a black button at the top at the centre of the front holding them in place, a dark navy blue t-shirt that looked a bit too small for her, as her abdomen was exposed, a grey leather jacket with two pockets near the bottom, highlighted by diagonal forty-five-degree black lines, which one the left side moved downwards right to left and on the right side moved downwards from left to right. The jacket also had a small depiction of a cat's head on the left side near the top over the breast area, which was a navy blue colour with white dots for eyes and a nose and white lines depicting the stereotypical drawing of a cat smile, along with three white lines on either side depicting whiskers. She also had a grey bandana tied over the top of her head depicting the same cat head at the front in the centre.

"My, you haven't changed any, Maya-san," she said to the woman that had let her in, as she walked in and looked the place over to see that the either apartment was a mess.

The apartment, itself, had a brownish orange wooden floor, bare white walls and a dark brown ceiling with a lightbulb cover by a Japanese style lampshade held together by paper and bamboo with the top and bottom being square in shade, and the sides being rectangular in shade with small black lines painted vertically near the end of either vertical side of the rectangles and two more line painted horizontally near the top and bottom of each rectangle. In the corner left hand corner furthest from the door opposite the window was a messy looking bed with white sheets and blue covers that had not been made up, in fact, from the looks of it, it seemed as if the woman, Maya, had made no attempt to tidy her bed from the moment she had gotten up. Not far from the bed on the left-hand wall was a rather old and tattered dark purplish brown three-seat sofa that was torn in places and on the floor between the sofa and a small square-shaped dark brown table was a pink rectangular rug that ran the length of the sofa and the length between the sofa and the table. On the right-hand wall, beneath the window sat a TV atop a dark brown TV table with an old VCR situated in a shelf underneath the TV table top. In the right-hand corner furthest from the door by the window was a dark brown table and a chair with silver metal left and dark pinkish red coverings.

Aside from that, the apartment looked more like a rubbish dump, as all sorts of rubbish lay strewn all over the place, and not just on the floor, but on the sofa and on the table in the corner as well. However, looking at the small table in the centre of the room, Yukino saw a pizza box sitting on top of it with a nice, steamy hot, delicious looking pizza contained within and she could not help but lick her lips.

"I ordered that for the two of us," Maya said, almost startling Yukino, as she gave her a friendly slap on the back.

"Sokka," Yukino said with a nod, as she recovered from her brief fright and smiled, "So, what're you doing?"

"Nothing much," Maya said with a shrug, "I'm just watching the last interview my itoko, Yamano Mayumi had before she decided to take some time off, due to the scandal surrounding the affair she had with that Namatame guy."

"Ā, you mean that kisha that Ai Terebijon took off the air, don't you?" Yukino said, before her eyes widened as the full force of what Maya said hit her, "Tsukamatteiru, you never mentioned anything about having an itoko before."

"You never asked," Maya replied simply with a shrug, as she walked to take a seat on the sofa.

Yukino followed her, and after clearing the rubbish from the seat to Maya's right, sat down beside her and then winced in surprise at how hard and uncomfortable the sofa felt. It was definitely feeling its old age.

"Oya, Maya-san, you really ought to get a new sofa," Yukino said, turning her head to face her friend, still feeling uncomfortable, "This one's getting on a bit. I don't see how you can be all that comfortable."

"I'm used to it," Maya replied dismissively, as she reached over to the pizza box and took out a slice of pizza, "Besides, I can't afford to buy a new one. My yosan's pretty tight."

"Sokka," Yukino said with a sigh, as she then took her jacket off and placed it on the armrest to her right.

Maya then turned to face her friend with the slice of pizza in both hands and motioned it towards her slightly.

"Nanitozo, help yourself," she said before withdrawing the slice and then took a bite out of it.

"Arigatō, don't mind if I do," Yukino replied with a smile, as she also reached out to take a slice of pizza from the pizza box, and then took a bite out of it.

"So, how are you and Shunsuke-kun doing?" Maya asked, once she swallowed the piece in her mouth, and before taking another bite out of her slice.

"Ā, we're doing okay," Yukino replied with pride in her voice, "Shunsuke's actually taking me up to Hokkaidō to meet his kazoku in Rumoi on Hokkaidō's Nishikaigan next weekend. His haha's just dying to meet me."

"Woa, that's great, Yukki, good for you," Maya congratulated with a smile, as she swallowed the piece in her mouth and Yukino took another bite out of her slice.

Yukino just nodded with a beaming smile on her face. She remembered back to when she had met Shunsuke. It was not long after she had graduated from St. Hermelin High School in Mikage-chō back in 1996 after the world had almost come to an end thanks to one, Kandori Takahisa and his DEVA Machine, though, not only that, but she also remembered how her former teacher, Takami Saeko, whom Yukino looked up to due to the fact that she had saved her from her former delinquent lifestyle and a life of crime when everyone else, her own parents included, had pretty much given up on her, had become possessed by the Mask of the Snow Queen that contained the vengeful spirit of Saeko's former friend Fujimori Tomomi, who blamed Saeko for convincing her to wear the mask, which had disfigured one side of her face. Thankfully, Yukino and a few others managed to free Saeko, and Tomomi made peace with her, and they went on to defeat the Snow Queen before going off to defeat Kandori, rescue Sonomura Maki, whose mind had somehow linked up with the DEVA Machine and had become Kandori's unknowing and unwilling guinea pig, and save the world by defeating Pandora, an aspect of Maki's personality that had embraced nihilism due to the fact that Maki originally had a weak constitution, and it had left her bedridden for a year, and Pandora had planned to erase everything from existence using the DEVA Machine's core. Afterwards, Maki's health had greatly improved, though Yukino had to wonder if that was a side-effect of the DEVA Machine, since there seemed to be no other plausible explanations to explain it.

Anyway, after that particular incident, Yukino had aspired to become a photographer, and it was then, when her aspirations had taken her to Sumaru City where she met Fujii Shunsuke, and he had become her mentor. It was also through Shunsuke that she had come to meet Amano Maya, as Shunsuke had been a former colleague of Maya's late father, Amano Masataka, who had been a war correspondent that had been killed while trying to document a war. Anyway, upon meeting Shunsuke, it had been love at first sight, and Yukino had come to develop a crush on him, though, due to the fact that she was a tomboy, in order not to cause him to think that she was weird or anything, she had tried to hide her tomboyish nature from him and became more girlish when in his company.

Anyway, in the year, 1999, in Sumaru City, a group known as the NWO or New World Order, led by Foreign Secretary Sudō Tatsuzō conspired to bring about the end of the world, though as it turned out, they were nothing more than pawns of the being, Nyarlathotep, who was basically a being spawned by the Collective Unconscious, representing mankind's darkest traits and desires. Though Yukino was not instrumental in dealing with the NWO or Nyarlathotep, she had helped protect the city, and thankfully, Nyarlathotep was beaten, and if that was not enough, Maya was one of those instrumental in his defeat, her along with Suō Tatsuya, Tatsuya's older brother, Suō Katsuya, Maya's old roommate, Serizawa Ulala and Saga Kaoru a.k.a. Baofu, who was an extortionist and so-called tap buster. However, regardless of that, her relationship with Shunsuke continued to grow, and two years later, they were married after Shunsuke admitted that he was aware of Yukino's tomboyish nature and did not mind. In fact, according to him, it added to her appeal, and that had meant a lot to Yukino. She was so happy and touched by this that she had agreed to marry him.

However, what Yukino did know that a lot of people did not know was that the world they were all currently living in was not the original world. The current world was nothing more than a copy that was created after Nyarlathotep had manged to succeed in destroying the world by manipulating a group of teenagers into fulfilling a prophecy that ended with Maya's death. The group, from which she had initially been a part of consisted of Tatsuya, Maya, along with Lisa Silverman, Mishina Eikichi and Kurosu Jun had originally been investigating a mysterious being known as Joker, who was said to make people's dreams come true. All they had to do was dial their own cell phone numbers, though as it turned out, Joker, in reality was Kurosu Jun, who Nyarlathotep tricked into believing that Maya had perished in a fire at Sumaru City's Araya Shrine by tampering with his memories. However, in that world, Shunsuke had gotten killed, and though it shocked Yukino to the point where she did not want to go on, Tatsuya was able to talk sense into her. Eventually they managed to save Jun, though, Nyarlathotep, disguised as Jun's dead father, Kashihara Akinari striped Jun of his Persona summoning abilities, but Yukino gave hers up and gave then to Jun, and he took her place in the group, though rather than stopping Nyarlathotep, they had played right into his hands, and Maya had been killed, and so, in order to prevent that tragedy from ever occurring, the others had agreed to sacrifice their memories and friendship by erasing their first meeting in order to create a new world, something that Yukino was thankful for, as it meant that Shunsuke had not been killed and was still alive.

However, unfortunately, Tatsuya had panicked at the thought of sacrificing his memories at the last minute, and fearing loneliness, he had failed to completely synchronise with his counterpart in this world, which gave Nyarlathotep the opening he needed to try and re-establish the original timeline, and so, the incident with NWO was basically trying to stop Nyarlathotep again, with the NWO taking the place of the Masked Circle, the organisation that Jun, as Joker, created, only this time, they were successful, and as far as she knew, Nyarlathotep had been banished to parts unknown. The only reason why she remembered the original timeline, at least she figured, was because of the incident in 1996, which she was a part of, and that had also been Nyarlathotep's doing, as he posed as Kandori's Persona and manipulated him from behind the scenes. Despite the pasts of Tatsuya, Jun, Lisa and Eikichi being different, in that they never met as children, and thus, never met Maya, the 1996 incident remained completely unaltered. It played out in this world the same way it had played out in the original timeline, though despite not meeting the children, Maya's father still died, Maya still became a journalist to follow in his footsteps, though she resolved not to start a family, since she believed that she was incapable of managing time between her job and raising a family, and both she and Maya had ended up being partnered together.

"You're thinking about what happened twelve years ago, aren't you?" Maya's voice came, pulling Yukino out of her thoughts.

"Hai," Yukino replied, turning to see that Maya was looking at her with a worried expression on her face.

As for Maya herself, it was true that she knew about the other side. The deal was that Tatsuya and the others would sacrifice their memories, however, if their memories returned, the original timeline would re-establish itself. That incident was not something that she wanted to think about. Because Tatsuya had backed out, he had retained his memories, and in the end, he had separated from his counterpart and had returned to the Other Side. She did not have her memories back, as she had been killed, though she did know of her counterpart's past. It was hard to explain, a month after the Sumaru City Incident, there was some kind of accident in Tatsumi Port Island involving the Kirijō Group, which not only had caused the world to enter some sort of twisted and dismally oppressive alternate dimension where strange creatures roamed at midnight each night for one hour, but it had also somehow bestowed the knowledge of her counterpart on the Other Side, though rather than feeling like things that she, herself, had experienced, it felt more like she had just been observing her counterpart from the outside. She could not really explain how or why it happened, though she expected that weird phenomenon caused by whatever the Kirijō Group were working on had something to do with it, though she could not say for sure how or why knowledge of her counterpart on the Other Side came into her mind.

It was thanks to that incident that the Sumaru City incident had quickly been forgotten, as the general public's attention had been diverted because of the explosion on Tatsumi Port Island. Neither Maya nor Yukino knew what the Kirijō Group had been up to, but since that accident, up till the 31st January 2010, at midnight each night, the world seemed to go into another dimension where everything became a sickening green colour, liquids turned to blood and all electronics ceased to function. The atmosphere also became far more oppressive and heavy, and the majority of people transformed into coffins. Not only that, but there were also those strange blob like creatures wearing masks that prowled about attacking those few unlucky enough not to transform into coffins, and in some cases, the people, themselves, transformed into those creatures. Each time this had happened, it had lasted just one hour each time. Maya and Yukino were among the ones that did not transform into coffins, neither did they transform into those creatures, though, those creatures seemed to single them out for some reason whenever someone else who had not transformed into a coffin was nearby. Whenever they noticed them, they would abandon their initial prey and come straight after them.

Thankfully they had their Personas, and not only that, but apparently, as it turned out, all of Yukino's friends involved in the Mikage-chō incident, as well as Katsuya, Ulala and Baofu did not transform into coffins either, and like her and Yukino, those strange creatures seemed to single them out as well. Whenever those creatures attacked, they seemed to transform into a variety of different things, ranging from tanks, mecha, birds etc., and sometimes one creature, alone, would break off into up to five different entities. She could not say for sure, but considering that all those singled out were capable of summoning Persona, Maya concluded that that was because those creatures had singled them out. Something about their ability to summon Persona obviously must have posed some sort of threat to those creatures.

However, on the 31st January 2010, that time, something happened with the moon, as it seemed to be transforming into some kind of spaceship, at least from Maya's perspective it was, but then also of a suddenly, whatever was happening suddenly stopped, and everything went back to normal. After that, that strange oppressive dimension and those creatures no longer turned up at midnight. Maya knew that, given those creatures' tendency to chase after Persona Users while abandoning anyone they happened to be chasing at the time, she guessed that a group of Persona Users must have been responsible for dealing with whatever it as that was causing that oppressive dimension to pop up, though she did not know the details. However, she somehow still retained the experiences of her counterpart, and that was another reason why she was able to connect the creatures to Persona Users, as it was how they were able to save the world, though whereas Maya and Yukino were accustomed to fighting demons that seemed to pop up whenever the world was in danger, those creatures did not seem like regular demons… at least not like the ones they had become used to, as they could not form pacts with them.

"So, Yamano Mayumi's your itoko?" Yukino's voice came bringing Maya out of her thoughts and back to reality, and from her question, it was obvious that she was wanting to change the subject.

"Hai, that's right," Maya said with a nod before taking another bite out of her pizza slice and waited till she swallowed it before continuing to speak, "She's my sukoshi itoko on otō-san's side."

"Your chichi had a shimai?" Yukino asked, hypothesising that Maya's father probably had a sister, considering that Mayumi's family name was different, and it was usually the husband's family name that was carried over in marriage, as she was now Fujii Yukino, as opposed to Shunsuke being Mayuzumi Shunsuke.

"Hai, that's right, though, I hardly interacted with her, but oba-san was rather fond of our myōji," Maya started to explain, as Yukino took another bite out of her slice of pizza, "And knowing the chances of keeping it once she married were rather slim, she opted to marry someone with a similar sounding name, and as you probably already know, Amano and Yamano sound similar."

"Hai, that's true," Yukino agreed with a nod after she swallowed the piece in her, "But you know something else, Maya-san? Yamano Mayumi does sound similar to Amano Maya, and not only that, but you're both in similar professions, with you being a zasshi kisha and her being a terebi kisha. In fact, in the Roman alphabet, if you remove the Y in Yamano, you're left with Amano and if you removed the last A in your name and replace it with umi, you have Mayumi."

"Now that you mention it… that is sort of creepy," Maya said with a shudder before she took another bite out of her slice of pizza and swallowed it over, "I never really thought of that before."

"So I understand that she's involved in some sort of affair with a shikaigiin hisho… what's his name?" Yukino asked, as she started to think over the news she had heard recently, though she knew who the man was, it took a while to remember his name.

"Shigi hisho no Namatame Tarō," Maya spoke up, "That's his name. Apparently he recently married the enka kashu, Hīragi Misuzu, and now he's under fire for allegedly having an affair with Mayumi-san. I was just watching her last interview when you come around."

She then reached over to the table, though rather than take another slice of pizza, she grabbed the TV remote that was sitting next to the pizza box and pressed the play button.

On the TV screen was a woman who looked to be in her mid-to-late twenties with short grey hair and dark brown eyes. She wore dark bluish purple shoes, dark brown stocking that covered her legs, a bluish purple skirt the same colour as her shoes that went down to just above her knees and a long-sleeved white slight pink-tinted shirt. The camera managed to get her entire body in the shot and she was walking with a rather angry look on her face.

"Sumimasen, Yamano-san!" a voice from off-screen called out, just as a man holding a microphone, obvious the man that had been the one that had shouted out to her.

The man had short dark black hair and light grey eyes. He wore black laced shoes that looked to be finely polished, white socks that were briefly visible as he ran to catch up with the woman, who was obviously Mayumi, herself, neatly pressed black trousers, a nice shining black belt with a silver buckle, a white shirt, a neatly pressed black blazer coat with a breast pocket on the left-hand side and a neatly pressed black tie.

"Just who's he trying to impress?" Yukino thought with a frown, clearly not likely the overly clean look of this man, and apparently, Mayumi must have been thinking the same thing, as she completely ignored him and continued to walk onwards.

"Kotoyama Takuma from Inaba-shi Terebi," he went on to say as he ran up in front of Mayumi, barring her path and got right up in her face, "Are the allegations about an affair with Namatame-san true?"

"I don't see why I should have to explain myself to anyone," Mayumi said angrily, shooting the man, Kotoyama, a rather annoyed glare, "I already told the kisha that I'm not answering anymore questions."

She then tried to barge past Kotoyama, but Kotoyama stood his ground and fought back.

"Sumimasen, Yamano-san, but I cannot allow that," Kotoyama said with a serious look on his face, "You can't just walk away like that."

"Nani?" Mayumi said, shocked that this nosy reporter dared intrude on her private life, "Just what are you saying?"

"You can't just walk away from all those questions," Kotoyama replied simply, "You must answer them."

"No I don't," Mayumi said, as she tried to once again barge past Kotoyama, but once again, Kotoyama held his ground and fought back.

"I'm afraid that you have no choice, Yamano-san," Kotoyama started to explain with a somewhat sinisterly smug grin appearing on his face, "You must answer all those question. Now that the taishū are interested in you, you have no rights to privacy. The taishū must know everything there is to know about you. Tell us everything!"

"Is this guy for real?" Yukino said aloud in complete shock and outrage at the utter shameless of what Kotoyama was saying, and that he was saying it while on camera as well.

"This is just a recording," Maya said, trying to keep the disgust out of her voice, as she too was disgusted at Kotoyama's conduct, "This interview was conducted live yesterday afternoon."

She then focussed her glare on Kotoyama, furious at his lack of shame and smug arrogance over what he just said. However, she then smirked, as she watched Mayumi, who looked equally outraged, furiously launched a punch right into his face, causing him to stumble back and slip, causing him to fall on his rear end, and he also dropped the microphone had had been holding.

"Just what the hell's wrong with you?" Mayumi demanded, glaring furiously at the nosy reporter, "Īe! I'm not telling you anything and that is final!"

She then stormed off in a rage, leaving Kotoyama sitting on his rear end in a puddle of water feeling shocked, furious and completely humiliated.

"Kono ama!" he shouted furiously after Mayumi, cursing her as he picked himself up with a look of pure fury and rage on his face, shooting her a venomously ferocious glare, "No one does this to me, you hear? NO ONE! Mark my words, yariman, you might not live to regret this, I swear it!"

"Kotoyama-san," a somewhat panicked voice came from off-screen, and Yukino and Maya guessed that it must be his cameraman, "We're still on air."

"Nani?" Kotoyama said in shock as he realised that everything he said had been caught on camera, and not only that, but it was being broadcast to a live audience, but he then turned and glared towards the camera, obvious glaring at the cameraman, "Turn that blasted thing off, now!"

The last shot on screen was Kotoyama very hurriedly marching closer to the camera before the screen faded to black, and then Maya pressed the stop button on the remote.

"Can you believe the audacity of that guy?" Yukino said in shocked furious disgust, "Imagine telling someone that they have no privacy rights because the taishū were interested in them."

"I know," Maya said in equal disgust, shaking her head, "And he calls himself a kisha."

"So, do you know where she is?" Yukino asked in a bid to change the subject from Kotoyama's outrageous conduct.

"I'm afraid not," Maya said, shaking her head, "We may be itoko, but we've never really spoken that much to each other, much less interacted."

"I can believe that," Yukino said before turning her attention back to her pizza slice and taking another bite out of it.

"However, there are rumours that she's gone to stay at the Amagi Ryokan in Inaba," Maya went on to explain, "Though it's just a rumour. I don't know if it's actually true or not."

"Inaba, that's where Maki-chan's set up her seishinryōhō," Yukino said in surprise.

"Are, you mean Sonomura-san, don't you?" Maya said, as she remembered meeting Maki twelve years previously during the NWO Incident, in which she had been Hīragi Reiko's assistant at the Hīragi Psychotherapy based in the Kōnan Distract, and over in the Other Side, when she and the others visited Hīragi Psychotherapy, her counterpart had seen Yukino chatting away with Maki, and she had even helped her and her group, along with Nanjō Kei infiltrate an NWO lab run by the revived Kandori Takahisa.

"Hai, that's right," Yukino said with a nod, "You see, three years before the NWO or the Masked Circle, depending on the timeline Kandori built a machine called DEVA that was capable of bringing people's ideal worlds into reality, and somehow, it had mysteriously linked up with Maki-chan's mind, and so… she became his unwilling guinea pig. However, in her ideal world, she became conflicted, as part of her accepted it, whereas the other part rejected it, and because she was bedridden with her haha being too busy to come and see her most of the time, she became rather depressed and part of her started to embrace a sense of nihilism due to her frustration at being struck in a byōshō. I believe that she took to art to pass the time, and given how many of her paintings had a disturbing element to that, I believe that that must've been her nihilistic side."

"Hai, you told me this before," Maya said with a nod, "And her nihilistic side became the entity known as Pandora, and after Kandori's defeat, she stole the core of the DENA Machine and planned on using it to destroy the world, but she was stopped by that Naoya boy."

Yukino nodded.

"That's why Maki-chan became a seishinkai," she said, as she thought about her old friend, "She feels somewhat responsible for Pandora because Pandora was technically a part of her being, and so she believes that helping people with overcoming their problems is her way of making up for it. I do believe that she's taken interest in a girl that she's wanting to help."

"Ā, you told me, she's also you buntsū tomodachi, isn't she?" Maya said, remembering that Yukino and Maki had become pen pals.

"Hai, though Kazebana-san, as I understand seems rather reluctant to accept help from Maki-chan," Yukino said with a frown, as she remembered how Maki explained to her the situation she believed was going on with Kazebana Reiko.

"Kazebana-san?" Maya asked curiously.

"Ā, the name of the girl Maki-chan wants to help, Kazebana Reiko," Yukino said, explaining what she knew to her friend, "Maki-chan doesn't know the situation, but she believes that Kazebana is being abused by her haha. You see, Kazebana-san's a shiseiji, and her haha had a one-night stand with a man called… Mikimi Kankurō, I think I remember Maki-chan telling me his name was, and it led to the ruination of her mother's career. That's all Kazebana-san's told her."

"Sokka," Maya said with a sigh.

Yukino just nodded, unsure what to make of it. She had to admit that it would be something if Mayumi happened to bump into Maki, that is, assuming the rumours about her being in Inaba were true. She pictured Maki offering her help and Mayumi turning her down in a rude fashion. From the recording, Mayumi did seem like she was rather sick and tired of all the focus being on her, and she also seemed to have reached the point where she would snap at anyone who wanted to talk to her regardless of their intentions. After all, with everyone questioning her about the supposed affair, she would probably start to believe that everyone trying to talk with her only wanted to know about what her relationship with Namatame was.

* * *

**Author's Notes** – Finally, another chapter done. To tell you the truth, I was planning on having this chapter out before Christmas last year, but I accidentally broke my old computer and had to get a new one, and it pretty much killed my muse, and then my mind got distracted with other things. Just so you know, if you're confused about the strange spellings in the part with the Lenston Family, they're not errors. It's a Glaswegian accent. All I'll say is that most of those featured in this chapter are part of the Investigation Team, including some OCs (with obvious exceptions). I also want to maintain the gender balance of the Investigation Team, so it will still have as many of one gender as the other. Also Japanese is a very difficult language to learn, since they have many ways of saying the same thing on occasion, so if I've put in the wrong word, I apologise. The last scene was supposed to be at the start of next chapter, but when I PMed another author and told him of my idea for the ending scene for this chapter, he suggested that I should perhaps use it for the introduction for the next chapter, as it would fit right in, and thinking it over, I ended up agreeing with him, so it was basically a scene swap. One more thing, just so you know, the town of Langington is completely fictional, though Rutherglen is a real pl


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